Arcreus: Messiah
by DarkSideOfTheMoon19
Summary: Destiny waits for nobody...
1. In The Beginning

**A/N: This is a remake of my old story "Swan Song", it will be longer, more spaced and will focus more deeply on the characters backstories. The old one didn't do much of these and was fairly confusing and boring, so I decided to rewrite this. Also this story does contain elements from the Archie Comics Enjoy!**

It was a dark and cold February evening in Station Square, a torrent of rain was falling on the sleeping city, causing the roads and pavements to shine and the air to shimmer like liquid glass. The cities nightlife was starting to awaken and replace the hard-working atmosphere that hung around the city in the day like battle fumes into one of drinking, sin and entertainment. In a small, dark alleyway in a vacant industrial estate, a teenage hedgehog sat next to the overflowing bins, head hung low, letting the rain fall on him with no objection. He was wearing only a tattered pair of jeans, now soaked through and caked in mud, the dull white fur on his chest was matted and stained with blood. His spiky, purple streaked quills hung in a comic fashion as if they had never been washed. He stood up, bent double in pain, one hand clutched to his chest in a hope of ceasing the flow of blood that cascaded from five, long deep gashes that ran the length of his chest.

He cast his crystal blue eyes to the black sky, raindrops mixing in with his own tears of pain, anger and sorrow, his name was Theodore Arcreus, and he was the most broken soul you could ever meet. With a hand still cradled to his chest, he stumbled through the alley and onto a back road, it houses rising each side like sentinels, silent and unimposing, Theo shuddered, remembering his own home, or the shit-hole that he had once called home, where his father beat him 24/7 and called him a "Freak" and a "Bastard". That nights beating had been worse than ever, armed with his crystallised form, he had slashed him from here till kingdom come, Theo had some how found the strength to escape from that hellhole when his father had passed out from his consumption of alcohol. Even now, over three miles from his home, Theo swore that he could hear his blood-drenched footsteps and the sound of his fathers name echoing everywhere.

_Mephiles… _

_Mephiles…_

_Mephiles…_

He half-jogged, half-limped down the street, blood dripping from him and marking his tracks like breadcrumbs but were soon washed away by the rain. Every part of him hurt, as if his entire body had been put in a mincer then pounded by a sledgehammer, he needed to get to the nearest hospital and fast. The street was deserted except a few old cars and a small, white van. Then he heard some bangs and some mild muttering in the warehouse opposite, Theo looked around quickly, finding no hiding place, he tried opening the back of the van, the doors opened with a creaking sigh, he dived in and slammed the doors shut behind him. It was pitch black inside the van except for a narrow shaft of light that illuminated a bundle of oil soaked rags, he grabbed them and covered himself in them, warming and hiding himself and using them to stop the flow of blood that streamed from his fresh wounds.

The muttering grew closer and closer towards the van; Theo drew the rags closer to himself, shivering slightly from the cold but also from fear, the door creaked open, he curled up in rags leaving one small gap so he could see and breath. Through the open door, he could see two burly men, both dressed in dirty blue overalls, each of whom where carrying, a variety of tools and equipment over their shoulders. They were laughing over some unknown joke and didn't bother looking where they threw their burden of tools. After, a brief few seconds, one of the men slammed the door with a loud bang, plunging the inside of the van into complete darkness except the small shaft of light that filtered through the doors. Theo shuffled towards the small gap and peered through, through this he could see the silent street and the desolate warehouses standing like dark sentinels in the gloom. The engine of the van, coughed and spluttered into life, and the van turned off the road on onto another.

Theo sat back and sighed, he pulled the covers off himself and watched the streams of blood continue to flow down his chest. He remembered a trick he did to stop himself bleeding to death, he scrambled around looking for the materials he needed, after a few minutes of scrambling he found a dirty needle and a length of blue thread. With shaking fingers, he threaded the needle and dipped it into his flesh and began to stitch up his slashes, as his flesh knitted together, Theo winced with pain even though he was used to this surgical procedure, he bit off the remainder of the thread and pulled the skin together with a squelch. He pulled a loose thread off his jeans and threaded the needle once again and dipped the blood soaked needle back into his flesh. He heard the sound of a gate creaking open, being careful not to stab himself with the needle, Theo crawled over to the door and peered out of it, they had just turned off the industrial estate and were now racing towards downtown Station Square.

Then, a stab of pain hit him in his head, he pulled the needle out of his flesh , and cradled his head as pain coursed through him with no mercy, images began flashing before his eyes, horrible terrifying images, he groaned and let the nightmare consume him: _A city in flames; people being slaughtered by an unknown force; their blood dancing in the air in a surreal fashion; an army being consumed by fire and heat; then overlooking them all was a shadowy figure, its cloak billowing behind it like the wings of a great and powerful creature_, it was so dark and smoky that he couldn't see much detail except the figures shinning ruby eyes glinting in the darkness, the pure rage and evil in those eyes hallowed into Theo like an abyss. Suddenly as quickly as the visions happened, they ended as Theo was abruptly pulled back into reality,

"What the hell was that about?" Theo said aloud "What the hells wrong with me, first the weird powers, now these visions? What does it all mean?".

He felt the van lurch to the left as the van turned onto another street, then he suddenly felt a violent stab in his left arm, he yelped and cradled his arm, a black burn-like mark started to spread along his thin bicep, burning away the fur and revelling his blackened skin, Theo writhed in pain, and lashed out violently with his feet, smashing open the vans doors, and sending his pain-racked body flying out of the back. He was in so much pain he barely noticed his body slam into the wet tarmac at speed, Cars squealed to a halt as Theo rolled down the motorway in a bloody heap,a lump of rock flew up and hit Theo straight in the eye, puncturing it, Theo roared with pain as he felt warm blood pour down his face, he then discharged thousands of bolts of electricity, which flew all around, hitting cars and ripping holes in the wet tarmac, sending smoking chunks of asphalt and concrete into the air and raining down like meteors onto the halted traffic, dinting roofs and smashing windscreens. Theo's limp and broken body began to rise into the air, electricity still coursing through him. With a wild yell, Theo threw his limbs outwards and let loose a hyper-charged shockwave, which picked up anything within a 100 metre radius and tossed it away as if it were dust on the wind, the road ripped itself up casting out a shell of debris that tore through anything left. The injured white and purple hedgehog landed on the ripped floor then collapsed on his knees clutching his eye in a severe spasm of pain, he heard footsteps running towards him, he groaned and collapsed to the ground. He felt himself being lifted to his feet and a bandage being wrapped around his bleeding eye, he turned, weakly to his left to see who had lifted him up. It was a black and crimson hedgehog with dark red eyes and a grim expression on his face as if all of his life had turned upside down; he glanced down at Theo,

"Don't worry" he said in an emotionless voice "We'll get you to a safe place".

Some soldiers ran over and took Theo of the hedgehog and began carrying him towards a overturned black van, peppered with debris and shards of tarmac, the black and red hedgehog took a radio of one of the soldiers and after a bit of tuning, found a frequency and began talking into it,

"This is Special Ops, Agent Shadow, I need urgent medical assistance on the North Highway, we have three men injured and another civilian in a critical condition, we also believe that this is a Code 6 civilian, I repeat, Code 6, over.". Shadow tossed the radio back and walked over the van in which Theo and the other soldiers were being patched up. Theo looked up at the soldiers crowded around him, weapons raised, cold, hardened expressions on their faces.

"Stand down" Shadow said calmly, the soldiers grudgingly obeyed, putting their weapons back in their holsters and muttering insults along the lines of 'fucking hedgehog bastard'. Shadow crouched beside Theo and stared deep into his good eye,

"Who the fuck are you?" he murmured softly as he continued to stare into his eye, Theo didn't answer, he just looked at Shadow with a dark and broken expression, Shadow snarled and picked up Theo by the shoulders and slammed him into the wall, making Theo yelp.

"WHO ARE YOU!" Shadow yelled, "You've killed over 20 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage, you're a danger to society, it would be worth if I could know your god damn name".

"Sir don't you think-" a soldier stammered

"Fuck off, Private" Shadow yelled at him, the soldier opened his mouth to say something, but then chose to sit down.

"T-T-Theo A-Arcreus" Theo stammered, quivering slightly.

"Well Theo, I hope you know you're in deep shit now" Shadow breathed, then threw him hard towards the back of the van, he smashed the back of his head against the solid wall, knocking him out cold.

A few hours later, Theo awoke in a bright, bare room on a clean, white bed, his quills had been washed and now hung around his head and eyes. The slashes on his chest had been stitched up and all of his cuts and grazes had been cleaned and disinfected. He thought it strange how his vision had suddenly been tainted with a red hue, then he suddenly remembered the horrible accident that had happened and the soldiers he had encountered. He reached up and touched the place where his horribly damaged eye had been, only to be met with cold metal. He jumped up and rushed towards a large mirror on the opposite wall. He stared dumb-struck at the new feature on his face, his eye had been removed and had replaced with a sleek, black robotic one, a glowing red light serving as the pupil, the edge of the mechanical implant had been welded onto his very flesh. A network of scars covered the skin just outside his new robotic eye, he traced his finger over them, they felt tender but not dire, Theo noticed some smaller scars covering his muzzle, but they were too small to feel. Then, he heard a quiet whining sound from an unknown source, however a few seconds later, his tainted vision zoomed forward so the miniscule scars could be seen.

"Holy shit!" Theo yelled and jumped backwards, his vision instantly righting itself, he scrambled up from the floor, and looked back at the mirror completely transfixed. However, unknown to Theo on the other side of the two-sided mirror was Shadow the Hedgehog and Commander Towers, the head of GUN.

"So, what do you think sir?" Shadow asked, smirking slightly,

"You said you found him on the North Highway?" Commander Towers asked

"Yes, sir, the kid fell out the back of a van travelling at speed and then subconsciously conjured up a protective electric force-field, which destroyed the highway and all occupancies in a 200 metre radius, the force of it flipped our GUN surveillance van over and injured several soldiers".

"Did you find anything for 'Arcreus'" Commander Towers said, his diverse eyes gazing at Theo as he tried to find a way out of his prison, He got so frustrated, that he charged up a white hot bolt of electricity and launched it at the wall, where it crackled against the wall.

"Yes, sir" Shadow said, darkly "Its just as we feared, he's Mephiles' son" he hesitated and began to talk "Sir, do you think we should hold the boy hostage, so we can capture-".

"No!" Towers shouted, glaring at Shadow " I'm not putting a kid in danger, no, my plan is the exact opposite".

"What?. you don't think" Shadow said, stunned,

"Yes" Towers said grinning "We're going to train him, if he does well, he could become a Sergeant in 2 years, a Captain in 4". Shadow smirked,

"So you think this kid one day may take down one of the most feared enemies on the planet?".

Commander Towers smiled, "I don't think he will, I know he will".

**A/N: Review and tell me what you think. I'm also accepting OC's for this story, PM them me if your interested…**


	2. Same Shit, Day In, Day Out

**A/N: Ok here we go with chapter two**

**5 YEARS LATER:**

Captain Theo Arcreus woke from a deep sleep, the covers on his king-sized bed were covered in papers and files about missions and various enemies of the state, a crack of sunlight pierced the velvet curtains and lit up his luxury carpet. He groaned and sat up pushing the covers from him. He had turned 19 the day before and had celebrated by getting himself pissed and staggering home in a daze, then giving himself an agonising headache that morning. He stood up and pulled open the curtains, revealing the large, ornate garden bathed in sunlight, its multicoloured flowers shining like glass, fro the early morning dew.

He walked over to his wardrobe, stripped off his pyjamas and pulled on a black vest and cargo trousers. He exited his room and walked into the bathroom to freshen up, he twisted the handle on the tap and turned on the flow of hot water that cascaded into the basin, he grabbed the beige washcloth off the side and threw it into the scalding liquid. Theo looked at his steaming reflection in the mirror, which hung opposite. Years of GUN service had hardened up his features and made his expression dark and serious, a few recent cuts littered his face, however, his crystal blue eye still shone just as brightly as when he was young. His quills were ruffled and sticking up crazily on top his head. He switched off the tap, grabbing the sodden washcloth as he did so and wiped his face with it.

The phone suddenly started to ring, drying his face off on a towel, Theo jogged into the grand hallway and plucked the phone from its stand.

"Hello?" he said, darkly,

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!" Shadow yelled from the other side, making Theo hold the receiver away from his ear, eyes watering from the sudden intensity of the ballistic outrage.

"Ok, ok calm down, where am I suppose to be?" Theo said, desperately trying to remember where he should be.

"Oh for god sake, The Freedom Parade, ring a bell?" Shadow asked, Theo's eyes cast to the calendar on the wall and looked towards today's date.

"Shit" he said, "I'm in charge of security aren't I?"

"Yes" Shadow said, exasperated "You better get here fast, it starts in twenty minutes". The call went dead and Theo replaced the phone on its stand, he raced back into his room and pulled on a harness with holds for different weapons, he pressed a small button on his wall, part of the wall behind him slid away with a pneumatic hiss revealing a thin dark staircase. He jogged down its moss covered stairs and into a vast underground room, its walls lined with a variety of weapons from pistols to swords, and in the centre of the room was a sleek black motorbike with chrome wheels and crushed leather seating.

He smirked then walked over to one of the walls and plucked a couple of shotguns off the shelves, checking the ammunition and slotting them into the harness that he wore. Next he pulled, two, long double edged blades from the scabbards and strapped them to his back. He walked over to a small wooden desk that stood nearby and grabbed a small battered radio, flicking it on as he did so. Tinny classical music warbled out of its small speakers, as Theo replaced it on the desk, pulling open a draw, he pulled out three pairs of inhibitor rings and a pair of ebony gloves with spiked knuckle-dusters sown in. His inhibitor rings were GUN protocol as he was classed a Type III agent, Type I being normal, Type II being gifted in unnatural fighting skills and Type III being gifted with abnormal powers and fighting skills. GUN believes that Type III agents can be dangers to other agents and themselves so inhibitor rings are given to Type III agents to stop or limit their powers. But since Theos power is so great and aggressive, GUN issued him three pairs of inhibitor rings so his powers are severely limited. When Theo was still a Private, he was sent on a mission to Metropolis to force back the Dark Egg Legion, however one of Theo's friends was shot and killed, Theos anger made his electricity levels increase, destroying his pair of inhibitor rings. He then unleashed a devastating onslaught of electricity that ripped apart half of Metropolis, killing 40% of the Dark Egg Legion and wiping out all power within a 3 mile radius. After Theo and a handful of survivors were pulled out of the debris, GUN issued three pairs of inhibitor rings in order to prevent such a monstrous discharge happening again. Theo knew that his powers were evil and demonic due to his heritage, but he was determined to use them for good.

He was snapped out of his fantasies by the tinny music finishing and the commentator began talking,

'_That was the Royal Brass Band live in New Metropolis Central Park; well here we are, 5 years since the end of the last Robotnik war. Today, King Elias Acorn will honour and commemorate the brave soldiers that fought in the legendary war along with The Council of Acorn and special guests including the Freedom Fighters whose valiant efforts managed to weaken and eventually destroy Dr Robotnik. All the final preparations are being made for the start of the Freedom Parade in fifteen minutes."_

Theo tied up the laces on his polished boots and straightened up, he plucked a long leather trench coat and slipped it on, he reached his polished motorbike and sat on its comfy seat, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pair of keys, in a flash, he inserted them into the lock and twisted it. The 1050cc engine roared into life, smoke began to pour out of its exhaust, when Theo rode it, he felt like he was taming some wild beast. Out of an inside pocket of his jacket, he pulled out a silver pair of goggles and pulled them on. He checked all the dials on the dashboard, his oil levels were normal, as was his fuel level and he head the maximum amount of ammunition he could have for the hidden machine guns mounted on switch activated flick panels on the body of the bike.

With a click of his fingers, the long, metal, security door slid open, unveiling a long drive surrounded on all sides by his manifestly well-kept garden. Theo grinned and twisted the throttle, the bike shot forward with a loud roar that made the nesting birds in the various hedges and trees around his garden fly into the air, calling as if their life depended on it. He zoomed out of his estate and onto a small, deserted road, he turned right and twisted the throttle even more, making the bike accelerate to its maximum speed.

"Come on, come on" Theo muttered to himself, glancing at the speedometer and trying to go as fast as possible, "If I'm late, Commander Towers with really put my arse on a stick for that, I'd be looking at six months patrol duty". He skidded violently as he turned onto a larger highway that ran towards a gleaming, domed city in the distance. "Shit" Theo thought, "That would have fucked up the tyres a bit". He accelerated again onto the highway, swerving through the slow moving traffic, he cut into another lane, and was almost scared out of his skin when a large truck blasted its horn as it tried to cut into the same lane, the driver leaned out of the window,

"Watch it you cunt!" he yelled and drove on. Theo smirked,

"Look who's calling who a cunt" he muttered, a few minutes later, Theo pulled off onto a small road that led to the domed city of New Metropolis, he slowed the bike down as he reached the giant doors, the roaring engine dimming to a purr. Theo whistled as he gazed at the city, he found it hard to believe that this whole city was built out of sub-atomic robots controlled by the Freedom Fighters artificial intelligence programme, Nicole. He rode towards the gates as a hologram of a brown lynx appeared,

"Captain Theodore Arcreus?" She asked

"That's me, and your Nicole right?" Theo asked, staling his bike to talk to her

"That's correct sir," She said, nodding, Theo thought of something to say but Nicole smiled and answered his question for him "No, Captain, your not late, in fact the ceremony is about to start".

"Right thanks, see you at the party" he said, grinning. He accelerated forward as the gates swung forth and let him in; the holographic lynx smiled and disappeared. Theo he rode into the city smiling from ear to ear, it was hard not to like the city, the buildings were beautiful and sleek, nature dominated the whole city, its many tall organisms spiralling and climbing towards the sun, children played all around, laughing with smiles all over their innocent faces, unknown to the hardships of the world, some of them even stopped playing and watched Theo drive through, gazing in wonderment at the machine that he rode as he moved past them at speed, some of them even waved. He turned right and drove down a small, narrow to a GUN checkpoint where a battalion of soldiers stood.

"Captain" one of them said, saluting, Theo saluted back, he switched off the engine and dismounted the bike, kicking the stand down to support the machine. He pulled the goggles of his eyes and pocketed them along with his keys, using his enhanced vision, Theo looked into the centre of the park, his gaze piercing everything that lay before him, he frowned as he saw Sonic the Hedgehog walk on stage smiling and waving, occasionally giving the odd person a high-five. He re-altered his vision to normal and talked to the soldier who had just saluted him.

"Sergeant, are all the security requirements in place?" Theo asked, curtly

"It's Lieutenant actually sir, and yes all security is in place, including sniper teams, sentry drones and guards, all acting on your mark" The soldier replied "Now, you have to leave your bike here and proceed to the ceremony, sir", he reached into his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie and handed it to Theo, which Theo then attached to the collar of his leather, trench coat.

"Where exactly do I go, Lieutenant?" Theo asked "Don't ask why, I got very drunk last night, and I'm still hung over". The Lieutenant laughed and pointed down the path,

"Well sir, not only are you head of security, but you're also King Elias' personal guard, so I think you should head to the stage and apologise to his majesty."

"Why couldn't Agent Shadow be the King's guard?"

"Well he's a guest of honour sir" The Lieutenant said

"Crap" Theo muttered "If, I balls this up, then Towers will have my ass on a spike, anyway thanks". He ran forward and vaulted the barrier and began to run at full pelt down the path towards the park, his coat billowing behind him. He dodged a few people as he arrived in the main square, it was full to bursting with civilians all listening admiringly to Sonic give his speech half-heartedly. Theo cut through the crowd, barging through the sea of people until he reached the stage. There he stopped, he didn't know how to come on stage to keep guard, if he came on too quietly, some people would think he was out to cause trouble, but if he came on too loud, everyone would think he was a douche. Thankfully he didn't have to do any of these because at that very moment, Shadow poked his head around the main arch in the centre of the stage, his red eyes scanning the vast crowd for any sign of Theo, he then spotted him and mouthed 'Where the hell have you been' and beckoned with his hand, Theo vaulted the barrier and walked on stage and towards Shadow.

"What took you so long?" Shadow muttered,

"Sorry" Theo said "I'm slightly hung over, I turned 19 yesterday and I got very drunk". Shadow sighed,

"Come on, you shouldn't really be saying sorry to me anyway", Shadow turned and walked away and Theo followed. They went down a narrow set of stairs and into a small room in which was assembled King Elias and the rest of the Freedom Fighters,

"Your majesty, Captain Arcreus is here" Shadow said and walked off to join the other Freedom Fighters in general conversation. King Elias rose from his seat and walked towards Theo, his cobalt cape shinning in the light, his blue eyes were dark and serious and his chestnut hair was combed back away from his eyes, every bit of him screamed royalty and luxury. Theo immediately knelt before him, which stirred a couple of laughs from the Freedom Fighters,

"Your majesty, please forgive my la-"

"For heaven's sake get up, Captain, I hate all this formality" Elias said, rolling his eyes, Theo shot to his feet, slightly embarrassed. "Anyway, we are heading on in about ten minutes, so just kick back and relax" Just as Theo began to walk over to a chair in the corner, Elias grabbed him by the shoulder "Your suppose to be the best that GUN can offer, you better live up to that reputation" Elias whispered, then swiftly turned away. Theo frowned then sat down on the vacant chair and put his boots on the table in front of it, he looked around, no one in the immediate vicinity looked like they wanted to talk to him, to them, he was an outsider, nothing compared with the fame and might of them. Theo shrugged then pulled a light machine gun from his harness, opening the barrel up with a click, he began to check the gun for any obvious defects like blockage of the barrel and whether the ammo was actually loaded correctly. He then became aware of a presence standing over him, he looked up and saw a purple cat with bight amber eyes was standing watching him.

"Hello" Theo said

"Hi" she said, she then frowned as if trying to think of something to say, "Err, aren't you're the person who-"

"Destroyed most of Metropolis? Yep that's me" Theo said, whipping his boots off the table and stood up and extended a hand "Captain Theodore Arcreus, nice to meet you". She shook his hand,

"Blaze, Blaze the Cat, and how exactly did you destroy it, I've only heard rumours"

"I deep fried the place with gigawatts of electricity, that's why I have to where these" Theo pulled up his sleeve and showed Blaze the three inhibitor rings clamped to his wrist.

"So can't you control those powers then?" She asked, her amber eyes gazing into his

miscellaneous ones.

"Quite a lot" Theo said, sitting back down, Blaze pulled up a chair and sat next to him "But when I ran away from home when I was 14, I had no idea how to control my powers, I ended up causing a huge accident" Theo gestured at his robotic eye "That's how I got this".

"My god" Blaze said, "Why did you run away from home?",

"My dad, Mephiles the Dark, beat me daily, he called me a freak and an abomination, he beat me with everything; his fists, metal rods, small pieces of furniture, heck he even blasted me several times with that dark energy of his" Theo said bitterly, gazing down into his lap. He felt Blaze put an arm over his shoulder and give him a small squeeze,

"But your stronger now, your older, next time you see him, you can make that bastard pay" Blaze said,

"I know, but I still have nightmares about it" Theo mumbled, he thought for a moment then looked up at Blaze, "Hey, you know after all this is finished, do you want to go for a drink?" It was the first time he had actually asked a girl to go out for a drink with him and he was getting rather hot under the collar. Thankfully she smiled,

"I'd be delighted, Theo" But then their tender moment was suddenly broken by a scream from outside, make everyone wheel around.

"Shit" Theo muttered and stood up grabbing the gun off the table as he did so, Shadow stood up so violently that the table in front of him tumbled over, the squirrel princess, Sally Acorn stood up and addressed the Freedom Fighters.

"Come on, we need to get out there NOW!" the Freedom Fighters flew up from there chairs and ran towards the staircase. Elias drew out his sword from his sheath and nodded towards Theo,

"Lets go" he said as they ran towards the staircase, ready to face the worst.

**A/N: And that's chapter two done, remember I'm accepting OC's for the story so remember to put forward your characters with these details:**

**Name**

**Age**

**Powers**

**Species**

**Fur Colour**

**Eye Colour**

**Description**

**Backstory**

**Good or Evil**

**Views of Theo (Do they view him as a friend or an enemy?)**

**Also some further BlazeXTheo stuff in later chapters **


	3. Demon Attack

**A/N: Ok here is chapter 3, if you want yours in it, PM them me ok?**

When Theo and Elias reached the stage, panic had erupted in the crowd, people were running everywhere and the Freedom Fighters were desperately trying to get to the route of the problem. Theo pressed the transmit button on his walkie-talkie and began to speak into it,

"This is Arcreus, what is the situation? Over" He aimed down the sights of his gun searching the crowd trying to see the cause of the problem. There was a burst of static then a reply,

"Arcreus, this is Crows Nest, a minute ago someone was struck down by some form of protonic energy, and since then, people have been killed with the same energy but we have no definite source of the energy, its almost as if the source is invisible. Over". Theo turned and yelled to Elias over the noise ,

"Something's taking down the crowd, its some form of energy, but the snipers can't find it", Elias nodded

"Ok then, I'm gonna try and get back to the castle and try and send in General Powlers men, I want you to stay here and help the Freedom Fighters defeat this menace".

"But sir" Theo said but got cut off

"That's an order, Captain, while you're here your under my command and I _order_ you to fight, I can fend for myself" Elias yelled and with that he turned and ran off the stage his blue cloak rippling behind him. Theo pressed the transmit button and yelled,

"Weapons free, I repeat, weapons free!", out of the corner of his eye, he saw a beam of blue light appear out of no where and streak toward him, quick as a flash, Theo dived out of the way, the energy beam continued onwards and hit the back of the stage, causing it to go up in a mass of blue flames. Theo gazed at them, to any bystander it would look like he was just staring at them, but in fact, he was scanning them using his enhanced vision, Theo determined by scanning the flames and looking the GUN files that the flames were from a supernatural source, which meant only one thing…Demons.

Theo put away the gun that he was carrying and began to calmly remove his inhibitor rings, with each ring that he took off, he felt the power within him growing. When he had finally removed them all, he whipped out two 5ft long swords and electrified them, making small bolts of electricity come out of them and arc towards the floor. He then felt the energy within him build, he had seconds before he discharged, he rushed towards the microphone on the podium and yelled to the crowd "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" the crowd immediately dropped, and at that time a dozen bolts of protonic energy blasted towards him from different places. Theo grinned and then with a roar, he unleashed a shockwave of electricity that cascaded in all directions, taking out power within a 300 metre radius and blasting tonnes of debris into the air along with it and destroying the protonic energy. The crowd began to rise and Theo screamed into the air,

"**COME ON OUT YOU DEMONIC BASTARDS!**" Then one by one, shadowy figures began to appear, the figures had no discernable features, common Demons never did, they were more or less 3D gaseous silhouettes. The Freedom Fighters turned to face the nearest demon, weapons at the ready, waiting for their next move. All was silent and nobody moved, then suddenly one of the demons was torn up by sudden sniper fire from the roofs, the bullets ripping holes in its inhuman body, a black, oil like substance began to flow from the creature, it let out a fit on hellish screams as it collapsed and died. Sonic then laughed

"Come on, they're not as tough as they look" He spin dashed into one of the nearest ones, ripping apart its legs, it shrieked and fell, its blood pouring from the stumps of its legs. Civilians fled the park as the Freedom Fighters attacked the Demons, destroying them as if they were made out of paper, Theo grinned, charging up the swords more,

"Now its time to get my hands dirty".

He leapt down and landed on the grass, creating ripples of electricity to pass from him to the earth, more Demons appeared out of the shadows and instantly started putting up a fight but they were only aiming at Theo. Theo dodged more protonic energy blasts and slashed a demon with the electrified blades, causing its body to explode in a flash of blinding white light, He then turned and ran towards another, swords raised, he then heard a whoosh from behind him, he instinctively ducked, a large fireball zoomed over his head and hit the Demon square in the chest, setting it all alight. He turned his head and saw Blaze sending out fireballs left, right and centre with a mad ferocity.

"I didn't know you had fire powers" Theo yelled at her, she turned and grinned,

"Well, we only had a five minute conversation" Theo stood up quickly and put away his swords and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, he focused his electricity into the gun, electrifying it he aimed down the sights and fired at a Demon that was bounding towards him, hitting it in the head, blood spurted from the remains of its head, he aimed at another that was busy attacking Tails, its shoulder got ripped apart as its body flew backwards, Tails then turned and gave Theo a tired thumbs up and a mouthed 'Thanks', Theo nodded.

He came back to back with Blaze, who was fighting three Demons at the same time, whilst Theo was preoccupied with two that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Having fun?" Blaze asked, as she punched a Demon with her flaming fist,

"Never better" Theo breathed, shooting a Demon in the foot and charging up his boot then kicking the Demon in the head, electrocuting it.

"Theo!" Shadow yelled, Theo turned his head and saw Shadow launching Chaos Spears at the Demons surrounding him "Pass me a gun and ammo, my Chaos powers are draining me". Theo quickly tossed over another shotgun and a couple of extra shells, Shadow jumped back, away from the Demons and loaded the gun, once it was loaded, he jumped back into the fray and fired at the Demons. Then a sharp spike of pain hit Theo's head like a sledgehammer, he yelled and fell to his knees cradling his head, the Demons instantly stopped as if ordered to, Blaze stopped fighting and ran to his side,

"Theo what's wrong?" Blaze yelled, cradling him to her breast, visions past through his vision at an intense rate, a burning city, the figure watching the chaos, the sky splitting apart and great white crystals rising out of the ground. The brand on his arm burned violently, he grabbed it and cried out in pain.

"QUICK I NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!" Blaze yelled at the Freedom Fighters, they ran over just as the Demons faded away into the wind, Theo collapsed backwards into her arms. A voice rang through Theos head growing louder and louder with every repetition it was a voice Theo had only heard in his deepest nightmares, and one which he'd hoped never to hear again,; it was of Mephiles

_You can try and run, but you cannot hide from me, all this will soon be over…_

His iris colour began flickering between red and blue at an insane speed,

"Does he have seizures like this?" Blaze yelled over his screams,

"This is no seizure" Rotor said, as he placed his finger on the pulse on Theo's neck, the walrus' eyes darkened "Its Demonasiea Vivolara".

"Give it to me in English, not Geek-a-neese" Sonic said

"Since Theo is a Demon he has this natural border in this brain" Rotor said, ripping open the sleeve of his trench coat with a thick knife to get to the brand that Theo was clutching "It basically separates his normal half from his demonic half and enforces order". Rotor reached the brand, everyone gasped when they saw it, it was oozing blood and was severely swollen and burnt, the veins that surrounded it were pitch black. "For god sake, someone hold his hand back" Rotor grunted as Theo clamped his hand back to the wound after Rotor attempted to remove it, Blaze grabbed his hand and pinned it under her knee. "Demonasiea Vivolara, is were that barrier is damaged and both sides start to mix, in Theos case the barrier probably got damaged when he overloaded in New Metropolis and killed a crap load of the Dark Egg Legion".

Theo began to yell even more as a fresh wave of pain hit him,

"Is it lethal?" Knuckles asked as he knelt beside Theo,

Rotor sighed "Well put it this way, good and bad don't mix, his brain will try to cope with both sides fusing, but he will either have to overpower the other half, or he will die, I can give him drugs to slow the process but the final decision will be up to him and him alone". Rotor pulled out a radio and gave it to Knuckles.

"Call in a ambulance we need to get him to-

Theo heard no more because he had slipped into unconciousness….

**A/N Apologies for the short chapter, remember to send in those OC's**


	4. The Choice

**A/N: ok thanks to ****Epsilon Team Captain Hande** **for letting me use his OC Levinski. And to XxLadyChaosxX fo letting me use her OC, Chaos the Cat. I hope I get their characters right, anyway enjoy!**

Theo awoke slowly in the bright white light of the hospital room, cold sweat soaking his body, an oxygen tube was lodged up his nose and he had thousands of electrodes , wires and tubes stuck into his arms and chest, He groaned as he twisted his head to stare at the multitude of machines that stood beside his bed. The windows were open, letting in a cool summers breeze that swept through his quills. He heard footsteps in the corridor outside , he ignored them still gazing at the swaying trees outside until he heard the door to his room open, he turned and saw a emerald green fox standing in the doorway wearing his trademark leather jacket and camouflaged trousers, in his right hand the fox carried a plastic bag full of something, he grinned when he saw Theo awake.

"Ah good your awake" the fox said in a thick Russian accent,

"Levinski, you bastard" Theo said as Levinski pulled up a chair and sat down next to Theo's bed, grinning "Christ how long has it been? Two? Three years?".

"Much too long my friend" Levinski said, reaching into the plastic bag by his feet and pulled out a large box of chocolates, he handed them to him "Here, I got these on the way here".

"I think this is the only time you actually bought me something" Theo muttered, ripping open the box and popping one into his mouth, then instantly gagging.

"Let me guess, walnut cream?" Levinski chuckled, Theo nodded and grabbed a jar of iced water off the bedside table, knocking over most of the 'Get Well Soon' cards that occupied it, instead of pouring the water into a glass, he simply drank from the jar, dripping water onto his sheets. He replaced the jar back on the table, panting.

"How long was I out?" Theo asked, Levinski thought for a while then answered ,

"About two weeks", Levinski lent back and put his boots on Theo's bed frame "That Blaze chick seemed awfully worried about you, she visited you every evening".

"Hmm, I better see her after I get out of the cluster-fuck" Theo muttered, gesturing to the mass of tubes and wires that encompassed his body, Levinski sighed,

"Well I'm not here on a friendly visit, I'm actually here on business" He removed his boots from the bedframe and reached into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a tape recorder.

"What do GUN want with me now? I almost died, the least I could expect is 'Oh you almost kicked the bucket, here have the next five months off'" Theo sighed.

"Well this mission is only optional, if you don't want to take it, GUN will just send another agent" Levinski said, Theo frowned,

"Your just a scientist, how are you know involved in major missions?" he asked, popping another chocolate in his mouth.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, and after the huge fiasco at Central Park, minor agents are being briefed as major ones, which leads nicely into this mission" Levinski began to rewind the tape, his eyes still fixed on Theos,

"A few hours after you were emitted into hospital, my team received a hidden transmission inside some ordinary radio waves, the transmission frequency was tiny and took ages to unearth but we found this eventually found this" Levinski pressed play, a tinny husk male voice started to speak, in the background, the odd burst of static occasionally drowning the voice out (**A/N the - is where the transmission is drowned out)**;

_I -cleanse this ravaged world, you ignore all the suffering that happens around you - weapon. You -and use it to fuel your lust for admiration. Soon-I-burn-Utopia will rise one more and we will-._

"What the hell" Theo muttered, as Levinski pocketed the tape recorder,

"That's exactly what my team have been thinking for the past fortnight" Levinski muttered,

"Have you found a point of transmission?" Theo asked, intrigued. Levinski nodded,

"The Northern Wastes",

"I thought The Northern Wastes were just ruins of the Ultima strongholds from the Great War" Theo said. Levinski shrugged,

"Well they are, but as we know just because a place is empty doesn't mean that no monsters are waiting" Theo frowned, Levinski was referring to a mission that he and Levinski did along with a group of mercenaries, in which the went into a human city infected by a horrifying disease that had turned the residents into monsters, he and Levinski had been some of the few who had crawled out of that place alive, and that in a way had made Theo gain a lust for power, as he had gained enhanced powers in that city thanks to some ancient artefacts and had done something of terrible there, that he and Levinski had sworn never to talk about again. After that Theo had delibratly drained himself so the horrifying powers left his body but a trace of them still remained in form of his rage.

"That's the strange thing about it" Levinski continued " We did a biological scan on that area, zero life, none, not even on a cellular level" He frowned and reached into his jacket and pulled out a flask of vodka, he unscrewed it and took an enormous swig. Theo frowned at him, then chuckled slightly and ate another chocolate.

"Anyway" Levinski said swallowing "GUN want you to go and investigate the area if you feel up to it and find the purpose and sender of the transmission".

"Why don't GUN just send another agent?" Theo said, his mouth full,

"Because that last line in the transmission 'Utopia will rise again', that's from an ancient prophecy from The First Great Civilization….its about the rise of a city of the damned ruled by the conqueror of the world, referred to in the prophecy as Raphael. We think Mephiles may be Raphael" Levinski said, Theo gulped.

"So you think that Mephiles may be in The Northern Wastes?"

"Yes" Levinski stated, he got to his feet and stared at Theo, "Oh, two more things I need to tell you, firstly I drove here on your bike, don't worry, I've taken good care of her and secondly, your house and its gardens have been reinstolized into New Metropolis".

"Reinstol-what?" Theo asked; Levinski chuckled,

"We basically teleported your house and it gardens into New Metropolis, onto Raven Hill to be precise, you'll find everything exactly as you left it" He pulled a file out of his jacket along with a set of keys and put them on the bedside table, next to the cards, "You'll find more information about the mission, my numbers on a piece of paper inside, see ya later comrade".

"Bye Levinski" Theo said, and with that Levinski closed the door and his footsteps slowly faded away "Just you wait Mephiles" Theo muttered.

Theo must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew it was early evening outside and the box of chocolates had been moved onto one of the chairs. The red sunset shone into his room, casting his room in a deep ruby glow. However he jumped when he spotted a cream coloured cat in the corner with aquamarine outlines on her orangey yellow eyes. She also had a long aquamarine ponytail and three bangs that hung in front of her face, her gold outlined heart shaped breast-plate shone in the sunset as did her sleeveless swinsuit, on the belt that hung from her waist, a long knee length cape was attached that fluttered in the breeze. Her boots were also knee length and had an aquamarine lining on the top, a golden diamond was embedded in the front of their white toes, the soles were also golden, a lightning insigne was emblazoned on each boot. She wasn't directly looking at him, she was merely looking out the window, at the darkening landscape, but her eyes flickered to Theo as he began ripping off the wires and tubes that encompassed him, alarms began to explode into life, however Theo made bolts of electricity arc off his body and hit the machines around him, silencing the screaming alarms.

"Who are you?" Theo yelled as he stood up on his bed, ripping off the oxygen tube that was strapped to his nose, his half naked body charged up with vicious bolts of electricity. The cat smiled,

"I wouldn't try hitting me with that"

"Or what?" Theo smirked and fired a bolt of electricity at her, at the same time he held her hand out and absorbed it, Theo was gob smacked.

"H-how?" He stammered, the cat then held her fist up; arcs of blue lightning began flying around her fist making it glow.

"Names Chaos, and yeah, I have the same powers as you" she retracted her fist causing the lightning to fade away, "But unlike you, my powers are a lot less volatile than yours". "Theo growled and jumped off the bed and glowered at her, she simply smiled,

"Well then _Chaos_ what the hell are you here for?"

"Keep your head on, honey" Chaos said, walking past him, sliding her tail underneath his chin, Theo turned and looked at her, Chaos sat down and grinned as she noticed the box of chocolates, "Oh for me, your too sweet" she picked them up and began to eat them.

"So back to my previous question, what the fuck do you want?" Theo snarled,

"I'm a mercenary, my client has a job for you" She clicked her fingers and her electricity flowed from her and formed a flickering 3D image of Castle Acorn "I gather you know what this is, my client has always been resented by royalty and he has grown tired of it and he wants to end it". Theo turned to face her,

"Who's your client?" he asked,

"Can't say" Chaos said smiling "Anyway my client wants you to go into Castle Acorn and destroy it and all its surrounding grounds".

"WHAT?" Theo yelled, walking up to her and staring right in her eyes, "What makes you think that I'm possibly going to do that?",

"Well you dieing of course" She said, Theo stepped back and suddenly became very quiet,

"I know I am, but that still gives me no excuse to destroy Castle Acorn"

"Well, as a reward, my client is willing to give you a cure for your aliment" Chaos said, eating the last chocolate and putting the empty box and the chair next to her.

"There's no cure" Theo stated starting to become annoyed with her

"How do you know?" Chaos said smirking,

"Because…because" Theo stuttered, trying to think of an answer.

"Exactly, you don't know" Chaos said, getting to her feet and pacing past him,

"But the government's good and fair, they haven't do anything wrong" Theo muttered,

"Says a high ranking official" Chaos said, wagging her finger at him "Put aside your own view for a minute and think about the poor, the homeless, the refugees who are all spat on by the government, they think that the government are a bunch of two faced slobs who just make laws to satisfy their own needs". Theo went to the window and gazed at the sunset, Chaos came behind him and put her hands on his shoulders and put her head on one of them, snaking her tail around his body.

"Even with those drugs that Rotor synthesised, you'll still be dead by the end of the year, if you take the job, you have a guarantee of a cure" Chaos murmured in his ear.

"But, I can't kill them, they're my friends" Theo said, Chaos laughed,

"They are simply using you, to get a little muscle on their side".

"That's not true " Theo muttered, swatting her tail away as it ran up and down his bare chest.

"Ok then if you want to believe that then do that" She murmured, she pulled away from him and walked back "But when they betray you and throw you into the dirt, don't come crying to me". Theo heard the door open then close, and heard her footsteps disappear down the corridor, he didn't turn to look because he was too busy thinking to himself, he either goes to The Northern Wastes and hunt down Mephiles, but he will be dead by the end of the year, or he could destroy Castle Acorn, killing the monarchy and getting a cure in the process. He turned around and noticed a note on his bed,

_Make your decision Theo,_

_I'll meet you in your home in on week _

_Chaos_

Theo sat on his bed and thought to himself.

"What am I going to do?"

**A/N: Well that's chapter 4 done, I hope I got the OC's characters right. Anyway remember to send in your OC's. **


	5. Loved For Who You Are

**TWO DAYS LATER:**

Theo walked out of the sliding doors of the hospital, into the early morning sun, wearing a plain black t-shirt and baggy trousers, Blaze was hot on his heels, carrying several small boxes of pills that Theo had to take. Theo was still slightly weak on his feet so he was using a cane to aid him walking, They reached the car park and Theo spotted his bike in the corner of it, Blaze sighed,

"Right are you sure you feel up to riding that thing" she said, her voice layered with concern. Theo turned and grinned at her,

"Well when I'm sitting on my arse, I do tend not to use my legs as much".

"How do you feel?" Blaze asked,

"I'm fine" Theo lied, in truth he was far from that, he had been pondering the choice he had to make for the past two days and he was still no closer to an answer. He thought Chaos' proposal was evil and insane, but he couldn't ignore the fact that if he didn't do it, he would be dead by the end of the year. Theo and Blaze reached his bike, he opened the small storage space at the back of it and Blaze placed the boxes of pills inside it. Closing the storage space with a snap, Theo cautiously walked around the bike, examining every nook and cranny of its gleaming black surface,

"What are you looking for?" Blaze said, tapping her foot impatiently on the tarmac,

"Good" Theo muttered to himself "Levinski did treat the bike well, good man", Blaze giggled,

"Boys and their toys" Theo sat on the bike, strapping the cane to his back, he pulled out the keys from his pocket and inserted it into the lock and twisted it. The bike roared into life,

"God, how I've missed that sound" Theo muttered, he turned back to Blaze as he backed the bike out, "Get on and wrap your hands around my waist, and put your feet on the holds". Blaze got on and pressed her body into his back and wrapped her hands around him, she searched with her feet for the holds and eventually found them and rested her feet on them, although Theo didn't admit it, he kind of enjoyed having Blaze pressed against him. He accelerated out of the car park and onto a road crammed with early morning traffic, thanks to his bike though, the traffic wasn't a problem, he simply swerved out of the way. All the while, the part of his brain devoted to driving the bike was on autopilot, his brain was still focused the choice he had to make, he was standing at a crossroads and he was the guide and the demon that lead and stopped him on both paths and left him stranded in the same place as he started. He would have to choose a path, either destroy or save, die or live, each path had its own patch of thorns along the way, either way he would do something that would harm himself or others.

He turned down a smaller path lined with trees, letting the sunlight sine through the thick canopy of leaves in small patches. The gravel road underneath crunched as the bike rolled up it's sloped surface, Theo slowed down as they climbed to the top of Raven Hill, occasionally catching glimpses of wide, rolling fields through the trees that shone with the colours of a variety of flowers. Theo smiled as he saw his ornate garden at the end of the path, still well maintained and shining from the morning dew,

"It's still beautiful" he muttered to himself, the bike rolled onto the garden path, surrounded by a range of plants from all around the planet, but something immediately caught his eye, a fountain, 50ft tall and 20ft wide was gushing water into a large bowl shape pool below, in the centre of the garden. Theo stopped his bike and stared at it,

"How?" Theo stuttered,

"Nicole installed it as a thanks from the citizens of New Metropolis" Blaze said,

"I didn't know that the citizens thought of me this highly" Theo said in wonderment

"Your like a hero to them, the citizens who got away from the main fight in the park, told everyone, their children, their neighbours, their friends. Now you see kids playing, pretending to be you, trusting their hands forward as if they have electricity powers" Blaze said, smiling. Theo chuckled and drove on slowly, Blaze gasped when she saw the monumental Georgian mansion appear around the corner, Theo chuckled,

"I presume you like it" he stated

"It's…magnificent" she breathed. They raced forward down another path until they reached the huge oak front doors; Theo shut off the engine and dismounted the bike, taking the cane off his back as he did so. Blaze opened up the storage and took out the medicine boxes. Theo walked around the bike and slowly walked up the steps, taking a large key out of his pocket, he put it into the large iron lock and twisted it, he then pushed the large oak doors open, revealing a huge entrance hall, with two large, twisting staircases towering upwards towards the floor above, from the large domed roof hung a gargantuan chandelier. Their footsteps echoed off the deep hall, as they walked in,

"Put the boxes down there" Theo said, gesturing at a long table that sat next to the door, she placed then down and gazed around the huge room,

"How much did this place cost?" Blaze asked, Theo chuckled,

"It was free"

"What?"

"When I was first enrolled into GUN, I had no place to stay so GUN renovated this old manor and gave it to me, I've been living in this place for around four and a half years" Theo said as he closed the creaking front doors with a bang which echoed around the room. Theo walked towards a door on the other side of the room, underneath the grand staircases, he motioned Blaze to come after him, he opened the door and stepped into a large sitting room, with a tall fire place and shelves filled with books lining the walls, a circle of leather chairs and sofas surrounded the fireplace and the large 48 inch TV that hung above it. Underfoot were plush, exotic rugs and carpets that your feet sunk into as soon as you stood on them.

Theo walked over and sat down on his favourite armchair, leaning his cane against the armrest and sank into it, sighing and closing his eyes with pleasure, he opened one eye and looked at Blaze, who was still stood there,

"You can take a seat you know"

"Oh sorry" Blaze said sheepishly, she sat on one of the soft leather sofas at looked around the room in amazement, she gazed at the fireplace and focused on it, she then clicked her fingers and a fire burst to life in the fireplace bathing the room in a soft amber glow.

"Oh yeah, Sonic invited you to his birthday party tonight, at the Imperial" Blaze said, smiling, Theo whistled, the Imperial was a 6 star restaurant in the centre of New Metropolis, only the intensely rich and famous went there, the food there was said to be some of the best in the world.

"What time?" Theo asked

"Well a limo is going to pick everyone up and it should arrive here around 6.30" Blaze said,

"Are you coming?" Theo asked,

"Yep"

Theo clapped his hands together,

"Great, consider it a date"

Blaze looked at him, confused,

"What?"

"Well I did ask you on a date when we met, so consider this a date, plus some others" Theo explained "And I do admit that I was quick on asking you on a date". Blaze smirked,

"I'll say, we only talked for about ten minutes".

"I still don't feel like I should belong with you guys" Theo said, quietly

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked

"Well. I'm just a soldier, heck, I'm a demon, I don't belong with heroes"

"Theo, you are a hero, you saved and helped people in the demon attack and you're apposed to evil" Theo looked at her with a dark look in his eyes "It doesn't matter what your born as, it's what you do that makes you the person".

Theo smiled and got up out of his chair and sat next to her,

"Thanks Blaze" he said and hugged her, he then pulled away and then they both leaned forward and kissed each other, Theo slipped his tongue into her mouth and she met his with her own, they both moaned, the kiss continued for another couple of minutes until they finally broke apart.

"That was great" Theo said as they held each other,

"Wow, we're great kissers" Blaze muttered, then suddenly she looked at her watch and jumped away from him,

"Shit" she yelled as she bolted up from the sofa and rushed to the door "I'm suppose to be somewhere important" She walked into the hall, with Theo hot on her heels, he turned to face him, "Look I'll see you tonight ok".

"Sure, see you later" Theo said coolly, as he hugged her goodbye, she reached the door and with one last smile, she opened the door and disappeared round it. Theo still stood in the hall as the door shut, he smiled and touched his lips, as if looking for prove that the kiss hadn't been just a dream. He turned and began to climb one of the large staircases, He then found himself in a large lab-like room that also served as his study, a long mahogany desk stood on a small podium that overlooked the enormous window that dominated the wall opposite, the window lead out onto a balcony that hung over the backend of the garden, and the centre of New Metropolis in the distance. On a metal elongated section of the room stood a row of metallic targets that Theo used to practise his powers on.

All around the room were various work benches with machines and chemicals sitting on them, ether silent and unmoving of whirring and bubbling, However the whole of the rightmost wall was covered with pictures of maps detailing demon movements and omens, along with photocopies of various pages from loads of ancient scrolls, Theo had drawn arrows and notes on nearly all of the pieces of paper. However Theo had given up on this a few years ago, as it was too hectic to use, but as soon as Theo walked into the room, the lights dimmed and the window began to glow with a eerie green light, then a voice began to speak:

"_Hello Captain, I am NICOLE, don't be alarmed, its just that you computer has been plugged into my mainframe, so I can monitor your activates and you can access all information stored in my data bank."_

"I don't feel comfortable with someone looking at what I'm doing" Theo muttered as he climbed the podium and sat in the black armchair, the shutters on his window closed, so the entire room was bathed in the glowing green light,

"_It's protocol sir, just for security reasons" _Nicole said as code began to appear on the screen, to quickly for Theo to read, "Anyway sir, I need to perform a sync with your robotic eye, so you can access information on the move, now this is going to feel a little weird".

"Wait a minute" Theo said nervously, "How long is this going to- ARGHHH!"

Theo's vision when blank, code began to pass in front of his vision, as the remainder of the nerves at the back of his eye socket stung painfully, the code began to speed up until it was a blur, then it suddenly stopped as soon as it had started, and his red tinted vision returned.

"Well, that was certainly…unpleasant" Theo breathed, "Ok then, I need you to search something for me".

"Ok then, what is it?" Nicole asked,

"Access a received GUN transmission that was found around 2 weeks ago from the Northern Wastes" Theo requested, the code sped up and several windows popped up as she searched, eventually after about 10 seconds, a audio file showing the dips and peaks of the transmission. As the transmission began to play, Theo listened carefully, brow furrowed, suddenly Nicole spoke

"I have found so extra files relating to Utopia"

"Show on screen" Theo said, the screen now changed to display several separate screens,

"Utopia has been mentioned in many different cultures under many different names, Necropolis, Xisada, City of the Dead, Cadina etc. But they all mostly have the same characteristics, they are said to be run by demons and to have emerged from a great war, at their heart is also said to be a huge power source that every new demon gains their power from" Nicole said, another picture appeared of a painting of a demon-like figure with distorted features, clad in a robe pure darkness leading a gigantic army of demons, "Utopia is also said to have been founded by a powerful demonic leader, there is no definite name for this leader, some cultures call him Lucifer, others Necros but the most commonly given name is-.

"Rafael" Theo interrupted gazing at the picture of the demonic overlord,

"Yes" Nicole said "He is said to have the power to control matter itself, so he can also copy powers that others have".

"Sounds powerful" Theo said, getting up out of his chair and pacing the length of his desk, he then suddenly thought of something "Levinski said that GUN suspected that Mephiles could be Rafael",

"Sources show that the total probability of Mephiles being Rafael is rated at 67.8%".

Theo nodded "Right, thanks Nicole". The room brightened up and Theo jumped off the podium, "Ok then, I'd better get ready for my date"…

**A/N: ok hope you enjoyed that chapter, remember to keep sending OC's, also I came up with an idea, I was hoping that me and some other writers could do a separate story arc of their OC set in the world and starring some of the characters that this story portrays, in return I would try to publicise your stories and I will also give you my definite opinion on them. If you are interested please tell me. Until Next Time! **


	6. Power Corrupts All Hearts

**A/N: Ok, this chapter will feature anything170's OC, Ghost and Luna Angelus' OC, Luna. Also this chapter more or less marks the end of Theo being good and shows his slip from sanity, anyway enjoy…**

Theo pulled on the shirt of the pale blue suit as Coldplay blared out of the built-in speakers in his wall. He hummed along to the song Yellow as he buttoned up the shirt and felt completely at bliss with himself, he left the top few buttons undone and walked over to the mirror and examined his reflection, he had washed his quills that now hung around his shoulders. His pale blue suit was freshly ironed and it mixed casual style with luxury, he bent down and tied the laces on his polished black shoes.

Suddenly, the phone rang; Theo rushed out of his room and answered it,

"Hey" Theo said cheerfully,

"Holy shit Theo! I thought you weren't gonna answer" The voice said, Theo recognised the voice as Ghost, a Royal Army Captain, he had worked with him twice but the only time he called was if some real shit was going down.

"Why? Where are you?" Theo said, worried

"Me and some of my men are trapped in Neon City, we're surrounded by infected"

"Infected?"

"A virus called the Legacy Gene escaped from the governments biohazard labs about two hours ago, its started to infect the entire city, the city's also been quarantined, now word on the street is that you can annihilate an army".

"Yeah" Theo said "Blessed with a curse I guess"

"Right, I'm sending you the coordinates to your teleport" Ghost said calmly "Hurry up". The line went dead, Theo ran back into his room and pressed the button on the wall, making the bookcase slide back to reveal the staircase, he ran down the stairs and got ready to arm himself.

**Meanwhile**

Ghost ran down the corridor as he heard the door splinter and crack behind him, his pure white fur was stained with blood, his white eyes were filled with rage and fear. He ran up the staircase just as the door creaked and gave way, the infected burst in, their features horribly distorted and warped. They rushed towards him with a inhuman speed, the wolf pulled out a walkie-talkie from his ripped grey jacket,

"Alpha Team detonate laser barrier"

"Roger" The soldier replied through the speaker. There was a bright flash of light as several planted objects, the size of dinner plates, unleashed a red laser that rebounded of others to form a web of lasers between the infected and Ghost, one of the infected tried to get through by swatting the lasers with his pus filled fingers, the lasers sliced them clean off, the creature screeched as its rotten blood began to pump out of the stumps of his fingers and onto the floorboards.

"Take that you sons of bitches" Ghost breathed before rushing up the stairs and onto the landing. Using his powers, he slammed open one of the doors and walked into the small room, aiming around the room with his M16 Assault Rifle for any signs of the infected, he kicked an overturned coffee table throwing up a thick layer of rubbish off the floor that must have been there for weeks, and walked to the cracked window.

Peering through the grimy pane he saw the infected running rampant on the rain-pounded streets 100 metres bellow, murdering and ripping apart anyone in their way, around a hundred of the disfigured creatures were swarming around the entrance to the block of flats that Ghost was trapped in, he knew that his team were in the building opposite and had the detonation devise to the 10kg's of C4 that they had placed around the buildings foundations. With a swift kick, Ghost knocked the window through, sending the rain pouring in, he pulled out a clip from his belt that was attached to a long metal abseiling line and fastened it to the window ledge, he climbed onto it, being careful not to cut himself on any of the glass, and with one last smile, he jumped backwards out of the window.

Meanwhile on the other side of the square, Theo warped into a small service cupboard, he straightened up from his crouched position and examined his surroundings the light dangling from the ceiling was flickering and cracked, the shelves around him were empty and covered in dust. He opened up his trench coat and checked the harness that was strapped to his chest, on it was two .44 Magnum Revolvers and two double barrel shotguns with ammunition for both. On his back were his 5ft swords with scorched blades from his battle in New Metropolis. He pulled out on of the Magnums from his harness and tried the handle of the door, it turned but the door didn't budge, he slammed the door with his shoulder, it moved slightly and a small gap opened up between the door and frame, he put the gun back in its holster and put his hands in the gap and pushed. The door creaked and opened a few more inches, just enough for him to slip through, pulling out the Magnum as he did.

He found himself in a small corridor, half blocked with rubble, the tiled walls were cracked and discoloured with blood, he glanced around the floor, a few mutilated corpses were strewn all around, their chests ripped open and there guts thrown all around. The rotten smell made Theo almost gag, he kept low as he climbed a small mound of rubble, he heard a roar behind him, he whipped around, a mutated women bound her way towards him, pus pouring from her face, Theo quickly aimed and shot at her, the bullet hit her in the head, she flew back and lay still. More on edge then before Theo rounded the corner and found more infected, feasting on people who tried to get away, he heard a women scream to his left, he turned and saw her being dragged away by two transmute men, their flesh beginning to peel off revealing the bare, bloody bone beneath, Theo pulled out the Magnum and shot at both of them, They collapsed to the ground dead, the women lay unmoving, Theo kicked another one of the infected out of the way of her, blood exploded from its nose and mouth as he snapped its neck clean in two. He crouched down by her, her clothes were ripped and bloody and gashes lay all across her, he felt for her pulse, she was dead.

"Fuck" Theo muttered as he straightened up and turned, he suddenly heard a smashing sound above him, he glanced up and saw a pure white wolf abseiling down a tower block on the other side of the square, armed with an assault rifle, the wolf was shooting all of the infected that he could see, Theo recognised the figure as Ghost. But Theo had left his guard down for too long. Three infected jumped on him knocking the revolvers out of his hands, one of them snapped it's jaws menacingly and bit down on Theo's neck, he yelled and immediately electrified his body, but that didn't stop them, the other two infected bit down on his arms, their poisoned teeth sinking his flesh, Then there was a whooshing sound and the infected flew off him and hit the opposite wall, Above him was a female sky blue hedgehog with long emerald hair, in her right hand, she held a long birch staff, the ends were stained with blood, her long white silk dress fluttered in the thin breeze, Theo also noticed that her short heeled stiletto boots were coated in blood. Another infected bound towards them, the hedgehog simply rushed forward and grabbed it's head, it yelled as she incinerated it in a blast of pure white light, Theo tried to get up, but his injuries limited his movement and he cried out in pain, he turned his head and saw Ghost running towards them, smashing infected with the butt of his rifle as he did so. The female hedgehog turned and crouched by Theo, grabbing his shoulder with her hand,

"Don't worry, you'll be fine" She said soothingly, Theo suddenly felt a warmth pass through his body, he looked at his arm and saw that the ripped muscle and sinew were sowing themselves back together. She eased him to his feet and smiled,

"My name's Luna and I know that you're Theo Arcreus, you're quite famous you know"

"Oh really" Theo said, examining his suit "Thanks Luna" he sighed "Oh shit, this suit cost a lot". Ghost who was busy shooting any infected within sight turned and yelled at them,

"I think you've got a lot more to worry about than you fucking suit!" He frowned at Luna who was busy breaking an infected's skull with her staff then looked at Theo "Who's she?".

"I could be asking you the same thing" Luna yelled over the cries and roars of the infected, Theo sighed loudly, drawing out his swords and disembowelling one of the infected that currently surrounded them "She's Luna and she saved me from being chow, and he's Ghost, he's a vampire and a captain in the Royal Army". Five of the infected suddenly all went for Luna, using his supernatural speed, Ghost whipped around and slammed the rifle into all of them, disorientating them. Luna then quickly pulled out one of the daggers from her belt and slit the infected's throats in one swift motion.

"You're a vampire?" Luna exclaimed,

"A simple thanks would have been nice" Ghost muttered, reloading the M16, Theo meanwhile was surrounded by about a dozen of the infected, all of them where horrible mutated and had their rotting flesh dripping off them. As Theo electrified the blades, a sharp pain hit him and he collapsed to his knees, dropping the swords with a clang, "Not now" Theo muttered, voices began to sound in his head, some were audible only as whispers and others were as loud as fog horns but all of them said roughly the same thing:

_How could the government do this? Innocent people were in this city, now they're nearly all gone. The government must be punished_

"Theo!" Ghost yelled and tried to shoot his way through the thick horde that surrounded Theo, Luna following close behind, blasting the infected with balls of light. Theo was crouched on the ground, shaking slightly, his iris changing between red and blue and his fur changing between white and grey.

"They must be punished" Theo whispered, suddenly he straightened up, but his fur was grey and his eye was blood red. He turned back to look at Ghost and Luna

"Get out of the way" Theo said, his voice was deeper and more demonic, which slightly scared Ghost and Luna,

"Why? What are you-" Luna asked, but was cut off by a loud demonic roar from Theo, he charged up his electricity, that had gone from blue to deep red and fired bolts at the first few, they staggered back in spasm, Theo growled as his claws on his charged hand grew and sliced at the infected that he had just electrocuted, they were sliced into pieces which fell to the floor. The rest of the infected moved in quickly, Theo heard some gunshots from above and Ghost yelling

"We need sniper support now, there are hundreds of them". Theo cackled and raised his fist in the air as the infected moved in, when they were only a few inches away, he slammed it down on the ground, a electricity shockwave burst forth from the impact, sending the infected flying backwards, the cobbles on the square got ripped up as the shockwave sped across the square, it hit the base of the C4 covered building, setting off the explosive, the building began to collapse with a roaring creak, Theo glanced up and saw that it was heading straight for them. Theo held up his hand, causing the building to halt in mid-air, electricity darting around it quickly, he then thrust his hand forward, causing the tower to fly backward and impact with the buildings behind it, creating a massive explosion, Theo laughed evilly, then he collapsed. Ghost and Luna got to their feet and ran towards him, through the field of dead and mutilated corpses, Theos fur faded back to white and his iris turned back to blue.

"Theo, Theo!" Luna yelled, turning Theo over onto his back, he was breathing heavily and his pulse was incredibly weak but he was alive. Luna tried healing him time and time again but to no avail, Ghost stood up and aimed around the dead square looking for anymore infected, but none appeared.

The watch that Ghost had on his wrist beeped suddenly and Ghost looked at it and smiled, he got out his walkie-talkie and spoke:

"Team, we have positive grant for teleportation from the King, teleport back to New Metropolis immediately" He reached down and grabbed Luna by the arm,

"What's wrong with him?"

Luna shook her head,

"I don't know, it's like…his mind has been gridlocked and he is trying to untangle it"

"How long will it take for him to wake up?" Ghost asked

"It could be hours, days maybe even weeks" Luna said, looking back at Theo, Ghost gently patted Theo on his shoulder

"Hang in there buddy". Ghost surveyed the scene of devastation, he knew that the Legacy Gene was not just in a lab here, but in labs all over the world, and he knew, in the bottom of his heart that this was just the beginning. He pressed a button on his watch, there was a bright flash of light and the three of them disappeared…

Inside Theos mind, one word echoed around with no definite end, a word that would shape his future and cause him to become something terrible…

_Revenge_…

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that chapter, please review with your thoughts even if you haven't reviewed before, I would like to know you views!**

**Until next time…..**


	7. The Pieces Come Together

**A/N: Ok then, on with Chapter 7 featuring NinjaKiwi96's OC Cynder. Also I have stopped accepting OC's for this story, but don't worry, you can still submit yours for the Sequel. Also I will have a huge showdown in the next few chapters, between Theo and some of the other characters. Anyway enjoy!**

Theo awoke slowly as the sun flowed through a crack in his curtains, he found that he was in his large bed at home, he felt a weight on his lap, he looked down and saw Blaze sleeping sitting on a chair that had been pulled up beside his bed with her head on the covers over his lap. He reached out and gently shook her awake,

"Hey" Theo whispered, as her amber eyes opened slowly, she smiled,

"Hi" she sat up and yawned, "What time is it?". Theo glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table,

"10:15" he muttered as he sat up "How long was I out?"

"Not long" Blaze replied "About nine hours" she sighed, as she looked him over.

"What? What's wrong?" Theo asked

"Look for yourself" she said, Theo threw the covers off himself and swung his legs round, it was then he realised, his fur had darkened to light grey, black veins blossomed all over his body. And the symbol branded on his arm had appeared on his chest, scorching the fur around it, Blaze helped him up and Theo walked over to the mirror, and was astounded by what he saw, his robotic eye had gone and his eye had grown back, but the iris's were deep orange. His skin had darkened and was covered in black veins, like the rest of his body, he opened his mouth in astonishment, his teeth were sharp and grey, he reached up and traced the outline of the veins around his eye with his finger.

"What the fuck?" Theo muttered

"That's what the doctors have been saying" Blaze said as she helped him into a chair "It happened about seven hours ago, all of a sudden, you just started to change, then your eye just melted and that one grew back in its place".

"What's happening to me?" Theo asked, head in his hands, Blaze sat down on the arm of the leather chair and sighed,

"Well, you are dying so maybe-"

"Maybe what? Hmm? That I'm at the end of the road? That I'm going to drop dead at any minute?" Theo yelled as he got up out of his seat and turned to face her,

"That's not what I meant!" She yelled at him, flames appearing on her hands,

"THEN WHAT DID YOU MEAN?" Theo screamed at her, making orange electricity dart around his outstretched hands. He heard footsteps run up the stairs and the door flew open and a female black bat ran in, her hair was long and was spiked into quills, her eyes were a shining purple and the inside of her long wings was purple. The black, spiked armour that she wore was scratched and tarnished suggesting that she had been in many battles, on her back was a long multiplexed sword and a bladed staff.

"I heard yelling" she said, Theo turned to her, eyebrow raised,

"Who are you?" Blaze cut across any further accusation Theo had to make

"This is Cynder Kio, GUN have placed her here to err…keep a watch on you"

"Great!" Theo said, theatrically "GUN doesn't trust me now!".

Cynder cut across him,

"Hey, I didn't ask to be here".

Blaze sighed,

"GUN trusts you Theo, they're just a bit concerned about your powers, you almost killed Ghost and Luna in Neon City"

"And I've turned into a freak from that" Theo muttered, Blaze scowled and left the room, before she cleared his room however, she turned and spoke to him "Just remember, people care about you Theo, remember that always". The door closed and Theo heard Blazes footsteps descend the staircase, Cynder smiled

"So Theo, I presume that you know Chaos the Cat?" Theo was so taken a back by this that he was speechless,

"What?" he managed to utter "How do you know about her?" Cynder smiled and sat down, she took off the multi-bladed sword and began to sharpen it.

"I may be working for GUN but there's another reason I'm here" She pointed her sword at him "Your decision", Theo growled slightly,

"You're working with Chaos?", she nodded

"Well let me ask you one thing" Theo said, but was cut off by a wrap on the window, without thinking Theo wheeled around and shot a bolt of electricity at the window, melting a portion of the glass and passing through it, but then it gravitated to the side and disappeared, then the glass smashed as a white boot crashed through. Chaos then jumped into the room and landed on the ornate carpet.

"Boo" she said, sarcastically, she glanced at Theo and smiled,

"Theo, baby, loving the new look" she grinned and glanced at Cynder "So, when is he arriving here?" Cynder looked at the large clock on the wall,

"About five minutes" Theo rounded on Cynder.

"Who's coming?" Theo asked, nose to nose with her

"You certainly know how to make a women not like you" Cynder breathed and put her hand on his bare chest and pushed him away, getting out of her chair as she did so. Chaos caught him from behind one hand on his back on and one on his chest, she leaned in and whispered in his ear,

"Our client is coming" Both of the women turned and walked out into the corridor, intrigued, Theo follows. They descended a spiral staircase saying nothing, until Theo broke the silence,

"Who is your client?" Theo asked, charging his right hand, Chaos noticed this, she held out her hand out, Theo felt the electricity drain from his hand, making it go numb.

"I _really_ wouldn't try that" Chaos muttered, they reached the entrance hall and they stopped, waiting for an unknown event. Then suddenly an unnatural wind whisked up out of nowhere, blowing a few pieces of paper into the air,

"He's here" Cynder said, Chaos then suddenly shocked him in the knees, making him buckle and fall to his knees, each one grabbed one of his arms to stop him falling forward, chaos drained his electricity from him temporarily, preventing him from shocking them. The wind sped up into a howling storm; small ornaments and furniture flew around the room, the chandelier creaked up ahead, then suddenly a slowly rotating black portal burst into life, Theo recognised the portal and his stomach dropped,

"No" He muttered "Oh god no", a person walked through the portal, his eerie green eyes shone in the darkness, his crystal body crunched like armour as he stepped forward and his arms was clasped behind his back, _Mephiles_. The wind and portal died, the furniture that had been picked up by the storm, crashed down, Mephiles walked forward towards them, his eyes glanced down towards Theo, the ancient fear of the demon that he had since he was young, rose back up inside Theo,

"Ah, long time no see Theodore" Mephiles said, he looked at the two women behind Theo, "Let go of him" he muttered, the two let go of his arms and Theo fell onto his chest on the bare floorboards, panting from Chaos draining him.

"I've managed to access the mainframe for Castle Acorn, if we're going to do the job it will have to be tonight, less guards will be around then" Cynder said, and Mephiles nodded, Theo looked up at the demon and grimaced,

"You're the client?"

"Yes" Mephiles said, beginning to pace around him "I only hired those two to make sure that you headed in the right direction."

"Direction?" Theo questioned

"Making sure that you wouldn't choose to ignore the darkness your heart or ignore both the light and darkness and die" Mephiles said , crouching down and looking Theo in the eyes "You've almost embraced the darkness, but there's still some light in you".

"Then what happens? Do I become your weapon that you use to become Rafael?", Mephiles stood up and laughed,

"if only you knew the half of it Theo" his voice suddenly became dark and serious "This is big, bigger than you can imagine, a great leader of the demons is about to be born and the demons can sense this, they're running rampant all over this corrupt world". Theo staggered up to his feet,

"You made me like this" Theo said, anger laced in his voice, he clicked his fingers subconsciously, a bight beam sword of orange electricity, at least 5ft long appeared in Theo right hand. Mephiles grin grew wider,

"No, it was all you, all that anger buried within you has caused you to lose you sanity" he rained his arms to shoulder height "So embrace the darkness within you".

"You caused that transmission from The Northern Wastes" Theo said, charging up the beam sword more, making electricity arc from it to the floor, Mephiles frowned

"I didn't"

"Don't lie to me" Theo said calmly,

"But I did not" Mephiles repeated.

"LIES!" Theo yelled rushing forward, beam sword raised, suddenly a black smoky figure whipped in front of Mephiles, it's long demonic wings spread protecting him, "What the?" Theo muttered, the demon started to solidify, features started to show up, the blackness of the smoke began to ebb away, eventually with its demonic veil taken aside, the figure turned out to be Cynder, wings spread, sword drawn, determination in her purple eyes.

"So Cynder has revealed her true colours" Mephiles chuckled, Cynder turned her head to face him,

"I never asked to be like this" she yelled at Mephiles, "It was the stupid government that made me like this, they turned me into a freak!". Mephiles laughed darkly and pointed at her,

"And that's the thing you three have in common"

"What?" Chaos said, stepping forward. Mephiles turned and walked back away from them, he looked over his shoulder at them,

"You all hate the government"

Theo dispersed the beam sword away and walked towards the demon.

"And that's why you want us to destroy Castle Acorn?" Theo asked, Mephiles nodded,

"You all despise the order that runs this pathetic land, Theo; you loathe the government because of their incompetence to save Neon City, and you also believe that they no longer trust you. Chaos; You think that they deliberately discriminated you and your family because of your powers, you've witnessed poverty that could have easily been prevented, and some of your best friends have died because of the governments greed and disinterest of the poor. And finally Cynder; you hate the government because of what they did to you, they made you into an artificial Demon, changed you, made you a freak of nature. And for that you want them to go through the same pain you did".

Theo gulped and looked at the bat and feline, Mephiles knew what he was thinking

"Yes, if you look deep enough in anyone, you will find the anger deep within" He walked back to them until he was only a foot away from Theo,

"I knew also that they would accept my offer, you on the other hand, I had my doubts, I knew you were friendly with some of the rich pigs and you wouldn't give that friendship up easily. So I tweaked the genes within you to make DV start early, and I added a cure to the bargain to try and sway your thinking. I've been watching you since the beginning, you haven't done anything that I haven't known about". Theo eyes went downcast

"The cure, what is it?" Mephiles chuckled manically

" Training, in DV the darkness doesn't kill you, it's the light and darkness fighting each other that kills you, we just need to eliminate the last bit of light inside you, _If_ you do this job".

"Yeah, we know, destroy the castle" Cynder said, in a bored tone,

"Actually, I've had to change the plan a bit, if we destroy the castle, we kill Elias and everyone else, but if we kill Elias family-"

"We give him a fate worse than death" Theo finished "Letting know the pain we've all felt". Mephiles nodded,

"As Cynder said earlier, less guards are on duty tonight, so it will be the perfect time to strike" Mephiles said, he turned to Theo "You can take out the whore princess, make her suffer, Chaos will kill Elias' wife and child and Cynder will slaughter the former king and queen" Theo swallowed and nodded, it was going against all he held to be civilized, but the world was corrupt and it need to be taught a lesson, he nodded,

"Ok" Theo croaked, "When do we begin?"…

**A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter, next one will have the attack of Castle Acorn, but I'm going away on holiday for a week and a bit so, you're going to have to wait a while. A million apologies! **

**Remember to review and recommend to friends, I would like some of you great authors out there to read this and tell me what you think! **


	8. Transgression

**A/N: ok then on with chapter 8, oh yeah for reference this story is set in 3164, that's roughly when the comics are set.**

**10:37pm**:

Theo knelt on a hill over looking the grandeur of Castle Acorn, his orange eyes surveyed the scene like a hawk looking for prey, the bitter wind bit into him and made his leather trench coat flutter in the breeze. Cynder was stood behind him, a walkie-talkie attached to her armour, a small laptop in her hand and a look of concentration on her face.

"27 guards in the courtyard, 14 on the first floor, 28 on the princesses quarters on the second and 20 around the kings quarters in the east wing of the third and, and 14 around the north tower. A total of 103 guards, all of which will have to be taken out, if we want to accomplish our goal" Cynder muttered, tapping several keys before putting the laptop away. Theo didn't respond, he simply stared at the guards patrolling the front gate, a burst of static came from the walkie-talkie and Mephiles's voice came through,

"Me and Chaos are in position, we are moving in for the attack, head in when ready" he paused then spoke again "And Theo, I can communicate with you through the psychic connection we share, if you concentrate whist you think of something, you can communicate with me also. Over and out."

Theo's eyes narrowed as he concentrated,

"Like this?" he thought, a dark whisper replied in his mind,

_Yes, just like that_

Theo smiled and stood up.

"I can feel the power running through that place" Theo said, "They've got security systems, galore down there. There's no way I can destroy the power in the Castle without either losing myself or severely injuring myself and others". Cynder smiled, wickedly as she began to change into her demonic form,

"Don't worry, my powers will amplify yours" her voice became dark and more seductive as she changed into her demon form. They began to walk down the hill, slowly keeping an eye on the castle, suddenly Theo felt warmth hit his body, he looked down and saw that a wispy beam of purple light was passing from Cynder's body into his own. He felt raw, unlimited power beginning to course through his veins, he held up his hand and saw that it was glowing slightly; he pointed it at a nearby tree, a stream of purple and orange electricity burst forth and incinerated it in seconds.

"Whoa" Theo breathed, "I've never felt so alive"

"With this power you can destroy anyone or anything in your way" Cynder whispered as her demonic form faded into the shadows that lay all around, and with that the purple light faded, but Theo could still feel the power surging through him. He sighed

"Guess I'm by myself for now".

He continued to walk down the grassy hill; each step slightly scorching the ground beneath, his body glowed slightly in the darkness. He kept his head down, looking at the long grass that brushed up against his legs, which quickly began to burn as the power inside him began to seep into the area around. After a few minutes, he walked onto a small stone path that led onto a quiet suburban street, illuminated by the orangey glow of streetlamps at regular intervals. Theo glanced around at the empty gardens, examining the flowering plants that blossomed from the soil. His footsteps echoed off the buildings, as he walked towards the moonlit walls of Castle Acorns outer walls in the distance. He let electricity build up in his hands, making it arc off and hitting the streetlamps at either side with a thunderous crack, the artificial orangey light of the towering lights began to glow much brighter as the orange and purple electricity hit them, bathing the street in an bright orangey hue. Many of the lights in neighbouring houses began to turn on and their inhabitants began to open their doors and windows to see the cause of the commotion. Theo still kept his head down, ignoring some of the shouts of recognition like; _"That's Theo Arcrues", "Hey, that's that guy from the demon attack" _and_ "What the hell is he doing?". _

Then Theo heard some one run up to him and hug his leg, he looked at it and saw a small wolf black wolf cub, he guessed no older that 4 years old holding on to his leg, gazing up at him with his big green eyes.

"Mr Arcreus! Mr Arcreus! You're a hero, you saved everyone from those big, bad monsters", Theo stopped and shoved the cub off him, sending him clattering onto the ground.

"Get out my fucking way" Theo muttered, as the cub got up and ran off, bawling for his mother.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" One of the bystanders shouted at him, "Your suppose to be helping people",

"Don't tell me what my job is" Theo yelled at him, bring his hand up quickly, he discharged a dozen long bolts at the man and the people around him, their bodies were blown apart by the massive charge, their limb flying into the air and their blood coving the area around. Panic erupted all around, people began to run in all directions, either back into their homes or into backstreets, but Theo didn't attack them again, that attack he had just done was to inform them that he wasn't a force to be reckoned with. He began to run, making the electricity fade away from his hands as he did so, he ran faster than he thought was possible from him.

"_You fool"_ Mephiles said inside his head _"Someone needs to take out NICOLE next, if not she'll strike up the alarm and you'll be done for"_.

"Already on it" Theo said, he then jumped higher than he thought was feasibly possible, he rose and rose until he was over 50ft in the air, a smoke like gas was beginning to flow from his back and quills, it was as if he…. was becoming more and more demonic with every passing second. He span until he was on his side and launched two thick, continuous streams of electricity at the glass dome above and the nanite floor. When they struck their was a loud metallic boom as NICOLE's main program became overloaded with the megawatts of electricity that was flowing into it. The streams of electricity began to spread into anything around it; trees, houses even the air all around. Theo felt time speed up and slow down with insane speed, colour began to fade away from everything around him. The world faded away…

Falling, falling, falling until….THWACK! Theo hit the ground hard, he groaned and opened his eyes, it suddenly noticed that it was now daylight. He frowned and sat up. The whole world had changed, the homes that moments ago had been standing tall and proud, now lay in ruins, plants clawing over their smashed exteriors, the street was littered with burnt out cars that had been long since abandoned by their owners, weeds and grass pushed through every crack in the road. Theo got up and examined his body, a few bruises and cuts but otherwise he was ok, the smoke like gas that had been flowing from him moments earlier had now disappeared. He also noticed that Cynders given glow that had encompassed his body was gone,

"What the fuck?" Theo muttered, he then remembered Mephiles and immediately began to concentrate on thinking

"Mephiles? Mephiles are you there?".

No answer. He tried again, still nothing. He stopped trying and glanced around, in the distance he could see that Castle Acorn had been blown apart, its outer walls wiped out and the inner building was charred and ruined. Theo charged up the electricity in his hands and kept on edge, turning around sharply at the slightest breath of wind. He gingerly kept on walking forward, checking around every corner for any sign of danger. A gust of wind blew a scrap of newspaper against his leg, he stooped and picked it up, he then noticed the date, which made his stomach drop.

_23__rd__ July 3171_

"3171? What the hell?" Theo said, he read on;

**LEGACY VIRUS SPREADS ACROSS GLOBE: MILLIONS INFECTED**

_The virus has completely devastated over 150 of the world's major regions and is spreading rapidly. _

_At this point in time we know of only one method of killing the creatures: destroy the brain. _

_Be on the guard of any loved ones who may have recently been in any sort of contact could be infected. _

_And if you find yourself out in a threatening position, please do not hesitate to act. _

_Again. _

_This is not a test. _

_This is not a joke. _

_We as a species are overwhelmed. _

_We are outnumbered_

"It's hard to believe isn't it?" a voice said behind him, Theo wheeled around, and saw a light grey hedgehog, with ruffled quills and deep orange eyes, a multitude of black veins crossed his body and his muzzle was covered in scars and cuts. He was wearing black body armor on his chest and ripped black trousers, along with a battered pair of black boots. Theo instantly recognized the person; it was himself but older and more battle worn. Theo walked forward, pointing at Future Theo

"Your me" Theo said, Future Theo shrugged,

"Isn't that obvious?"

Theo walked up until the two were face to face

"But you can't be" Theo murmured, Future Theo laughed

"I said the exact same thing, ok then, here's your proof; my name is Theo Arcrues, I'm 26 years old, my father is Mephiles the Dark and my mother is unknown. You just came from the year 3164, where you were trying to help Mephiles destroy the government, and you're afraid of your own power"

"My god" Theo muttered "But shouldn't we be causing a paradox, right now?"

"No, because it has already happened in my timeline, so I can't cause a paradox" Future Theo turned and began to walk away, orange electricity appearing in his hands "Keep close, this is an infected hotspot, they are everywhere, so be careful".

The two hedgehogs began to walk down the deserted road, electricity charged in both of their hands.

"What happened here?" Theo asked, Future Theo grimaced

"The government, that's what, they still kept the Legacy Gene in containment in labs across the planet _even_ after the Neon City incident, one day they moved it into experimental biochemical weapons with intention of using it against Acorn Kingdom's enemies, but it went wrong. Excuse me for a second" Future Theo pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt and switched it on, "Levinski, how are the scavenge crew going?"

"_We're fine comrade. We found several boxes of tinned fruit downtown and we are heading back to base."_

"That's great, pass me on to Ghost for a minute please" There was a burst of static as Levinski passed it to Ghost, then Ghosts gruff voice came through.

"_Hey Theo, did you find the more annoying, more stupid version of you?"_

"Hey!" Theo shouted, Future Theo laughed

"Yeah I found him, we are heading back to base"

"_Right, you better hurry back, your wife's getting pretty worried about you"_

"WHOA WHAT?" Theo yelled as Future Theo turned the walkie-talkie off and replaced it on his belt "I HAVE A WIFE?"

"Keep you fucking voice down, or the infected will hear us" Future Theo hushed "And _I_ have a wife, you don't". They continued to walk

"Who's your wife?" Theo asked,

"Chaos" Future Theo stated

"You married Chaos? What happened to Blaze?" Theo asked, Future Theo growled

"That slut left us all to be with her friends in the government along with Sonic and all the other Freedom Fighters and their families"

"What? Why" Theo asked

"That bring me neatly to the next bit, after the first missiles were launched containing the Legacy Gene, small areas of the planet were effected but the government had sealed them in quarantine, but it spread out of control, the Legacy Gene is the perfect weapon, its efficient, it's incurable and its fucking scary. Anyway within months, the virus had spread over 60% of the planet, the government knew it was incurable so they gathered up their top officials and heroes like the Freedom Fighters and Acorn Royal Family and left the planet and began living inside the ARK, they had extended it so it contained biospheres that could grow plants and wildlife. We've tried to gain contact but they're completely cut off from us".

"How could they?" Theo said, Future Theo shook his head

"I don't know, Chaos was the only one left I could trust, Mephiles had returned to the demon world along with Cynder, but a few of us-" There was a violent bang and a multitude of snarls from behind them, they both turned and saw at least 30 infected about 300 meters away running towards them, their howls and snarls getting louder and louder. Theo raised his hand, but Future Theo stopped him

"Don't, if you shock them, you'll only make them more pissed"

"So what do we do?" Theo yelled

"RUN!"….

**A/N hope you guys liked that. Let me know what you guys think even if you've never reviewed on this story before. I would also like to know whether you guys like Future Theo's character. Till next time! **


	9. Extreme Decadence

**A/N: Ok then on with chapter 9, thanks to Conor T Hedgehog for the helpful advise.**

Theo and Future Theo turned tail and ran as fast as they could, the wild howls and screams of the infected closing in behind them. Theo looked over his shoulder and saw the infected less than 5 metres from them.

"Stop bloody looking and get moving" Future Theo shouted at him**, **the adrenaline began to pump through Theo's veins, making him subconsciously speed up, away from the chasing horde, his heart was pounding a mile a minute and the muscles of his legs burned but he didn't care. It was either suffer a few pulled muscles or get eaten by the infected. Future Theo speeded left and jumped over the upside-down wreck of a car the blocked the entrance to the alley, Theo skidded, tearing the sole of his boot on some debris as he did so and rounded into the alley, athletically flipping over the burnt out wreck.

Future Theo began to franticly climb a rusty drainpipe at the end of the alley, Theo followed, grabbing on to the bracket and scrambling up. He heard a crash from the blocked entrance, he looked round and saw the infected clambering over the car, not caring whether they sliced themselves open in the process, which some of them did.

"Hurry up!" Theo yelled,

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Future Theo shouted back, as he grabbed hold of the roof ledge and pulled himself up, when he was up, he reached down and held out his hand,

"Grab my hand!" he cried at Theo, Theo tried to scramble up to reach it, but suddenly, there was a metallic groan then a snap like thunder as one of the decaying brackets snapped, causing the drainpipe to lean severely downwards, until he was only about 8ft from the ground, he looked down and saw the maddened faces of the infected leering up at him.

"JUMP!" Future Theo yelled, holding his hand as far down as it would go, there was another metallic groan as another bracket began to warp and bend. Without thinking, Theo quickly pulled himself up onto the falling pipe and threw himself blindly at Future Theo's hand, his hand snagged on his wrist then finally caught hold of his older self's hand. Grunting with the effort, Future Theo pulled him up onto the roof, when he was up; Future Theo lay down, panting;

"Destroy…the rest of…those brackets" he breathed, Theo went over to the edge and fired several bolts as the remaining brackets, they smashed sending the plastic tubing crashing to the ground.

"That should stop the infected following us" Future Theo said as he got to his feet, he looked at the ruins all around and pointed at a small skyscraper about a mile away "That's base, we need to head there before the sun goes down".

"Why? What happens when the sun goes down?" Theo asked

"I have no torch on me and more of the infected come out at night, it's much harder to get anywhere" Future Theo replied, jogging towards a piece of fallen scaffolding that lead onto the next building "From now on, we stick to the rooftops". Theo followed him onto the other rooftop, the cries of the infected getting quieter and quieter as they moved away,

"How did I get here anyhow?" Theo asked

"Tails and Shadow have been helping me create a neuroparticle ionic accelerator"

"Tails and Shadow? I thought they would have gone to the ARK" Theo said stunned

"Not everyone left, a few, who had some sense, remained to help us. Tails and Shadow were the only high ranking ones though" Future Theo said, lifting himself onto a half standing, sloped roof, Theo hot on his heels,

"Anyway, continue about that neuroparticle ionic accelerator thing"

"Ok, neuroparticles are subatomic particles that have the odd property of being in more than one place at the same time, we basically speed up those particles to the speed of light so they bend space-time to the extent where it is possible to latch onto the parallel versions of themselves. Basically we can pluck anything from the past and bring it here." Future Theo said, sliding down the roof tiles and jumping over the gap between the roof and the next ruin, Theo copied him, rolling as he hit the next roof.

"But we can only keep something here for a limited amount of time, in your case, 4 hours" Future Theo said

"Why the hell did you want me here anyhow?" Theo asked, Future Theo stopped and looked over his shoulder to look at Theo

"I want you to see how bad this world has become, I know that at the moment you are hesitating about taking action against the government. But this is what happens if you don't" Future Theo kept on walking.

Theo then thought of something "So why didn't you do anything?"

"I was still trying to find Utopia, but to no avail, I'm starting to think that Utopia was a load of bullshit. But when the infection broke out, it was so quick and sudden, it was like the world went into shock" Future Theo jogged and jumped over the edge onto another devastated building "Come on lets keep moving".

Half an hour later, the two hedgehogs reached the base of the grand tower, its base was surrounded in barricades made out of scrap metal that had been welded together to form a tall defensive wall. Future Theo looked up and down the deserted street for any sign of the infected, then walked up to a slightly raised panel on the scrap wall and knocked quickly five times,

"It me!" he shouted over, the grinding of bolts could be heard from the other side as the door became unlocked and swung forth. Holding the door open was Shadow, his face was covered in scars and his eyes were dark and emotionless. He wore similar clothes to Future Theo, but they were much more battered and ripped, suggesting heavy wear and tear. His red eyes cast down to Theo,

"Good, so you found him" he muttered

"Yep, are Levinski and the others back yet?" Future Theo asked walking through the door, with Theo hot on his heels. Shadow slammed the door after them and immediately began sliding the six huge bolts across its frame, sealing it,

"Yes they arrived back about 15 minutes ago, they got quite a lot for one day" Shadow said, turning round and leading the two hedgehogs through some smashed glass doors and into a large entrance foyer, glass shards lay all over, the discoloured tiles on the floor had either been badly cracked or had been ripped up from the floor entirely, a smashed chandelier lay in the centre of the floor, it looked like it had been there for years, as the metal that had made up its frame was bent and rusting. A few corridors lead off to the side, but they had all been stacked high with crates of general necessities like ammo and food.

"Welcome to HQ" Shadow said.

They went through a door and onto a high metal staircase, with cracked concrete walls and dying lights above,

"How long have you guys been here?" Theo asked as they began to ascend the stairs,

"Best part of 4 years" Future Theo said "Before that we changed camps almost every month".

"The trouble is the infected do more or less the same" Shadow said, pulling out an MP5K pistol from its holster and checking the ammo "They never stay in one place for long, they are constantly on the move". Shadow sighed and cast his eyes upwards

"But this place is safe, we have an old water main running through here which we can drink from, we've got food, shelter, clothing and several floors that we have turned into sleeping quarters using old mattresses we found". They walked a battered 3 floor sign and continued to climb,

"This is fucking ridiculous" Theo stated, "It's the end of the world out there and you lot just think you can wait it out?" Shadow rounded on him and slammed him against the wall,

"You think I wanted any of this? You think that I wanted billions of people to die? We are just trying to survive, but I suppose you just think you can run in there, all guns blazing and turn out the hero? This isn't a war, you ignorant cunt, it's a fucking slaughter!"

"That's enough" Future Theo said, pushing Shadow off Theo. Shadow growls and continues climbing the stairs.

"Thanks for that" Theo breathed, but Future Theo just grunted and continued climbing the stairs, Theo frowned and climbed up along side him. Then Theo realised something.

"Hang on, what about Rafael?" Future Theo sighed and looked at him,

"Do you even know who Rafael is?"

"Yeah, its Mephiles, right?" Theo said, confidently, Future Theo shook his head

"No someone even more dangerous and unstable than him"

"Who?" Theo asked, Future Theos expression darkened

"Take an educated guess".

Theos heart plummeted

"No" he muttered shaking his head "No, it can't be"

Future Theo swallowed and nodded "Yes, _we_ are Rafael", His words only strengthened Theo's dread.

"You're lying" Theo said, shaking his head.

"Would I lie to you?" Future Theo said, his words dark with truth

"YOU'RE A LIER!" Theo yelled and ran back down the stairs, with insane speed, Future Theo's cries a blur to him; he reached the bottom of the stairs in less than ten seconds and flung the door open so violently that the door ripped from his hinges. Tears were forming in Theo's eyes, he couldn't be Rafael, he couldn't be destined to be a demon overlord, but at the same time there was a part of him that knew it was true, that Future Theo wasn't lying. He raced though the smashed doors and threw himself into the air, soaring over the barricade as he did so, he landed on the pavement without a scratch physically, but mentally, he was being torn apart, as the realisation of Rafael pierced into him. He yelled in anger and started firing electricity off at random, the electricity ignited some of the fuel left in the tanks of the cars, causing them to explode as one with unbarred force, the ring of fire and twisted surrounded Theo, he looked around at the carnage as the flames reseeded but the mirage still scorched the air around. Beyond the circle of devastation that surrounded him, Theo saw the infected, not just one or two but an entire army, at least a hundred of them, all savage and ravenous.

"COME ON THEN YOU BASTARDS!" Theo yelled at them "I'VE GOT NOTHING TO LOOSE!". They all moved in for the kill, scrambling over the burning cars, yelling maddeningly. Theo conjurered up two long, orange beam swords out of the palms of his hands and ran towards the horde screaming blue murder. As soon as he neared, the infected jumped at him, snarling, Theo jumped out of the way of a few of them and span in the air, decapitating some of the infected, blood spurted up into the air, staining Theos grey fur. He landed neatly on the ground, the infected turned sluggishly, but not before Theo was darting forward, rotating his wrists, causing the beams to spin, anyone of the infected caught in his way were ripped to pieces, then suddenly, one of the infected grabbed his leg, causing him to fall flat on his face, breaking his nose, the creature was now on to of him, snapping eagerly for his throat, hissing delightfully. Theo roared as savage as the infected and with his fingers straight, he ripped through the flesh of the creature's stomach with his hand, the creature gargled but still kept going for his throat. Holding it back with one hand, he tore through the creatures spinal column and out through its back, The creature roared then lay still, Theo threw the diseased body off him, but the horde was still moving in from all sides, some started to try and bite him now that he was on the floor and vulnerable, but Theo slammed the palm of his hand onto the base of the nearest creatures chin, its head snapped back with a sickening crunch.

He jumped to his feet and instantly began fighting like an animal, not using his powers just ripping and tearing, splintering his fingernails and cutting his body as he did so. He could feel the blood rushing down his fingers but he didn't care, it was like he was embracing his animal instinct, He jumped over the horde then, plummeted down and punched the ground creating a shock wave that blasted the horde back away from him. The tarmac beneath him was hot and cracked from the impact, he straightened up and roared demonically at the infected, his eyes now starting to turn a blood red as if someone was slowly tipping blood into his iris. He could feel himself becoming stronger and more powerful, he glanced down and saw that his lightening had also become red, he felt the energy build up inside him, he smiled and let loose a huge wave of red energy, which blasted the wreaks of the cars backwards, crushing the infected that were still close to him. Theo began to laugh, why was he worrying about Rafael? He could become Rafael and use his power to destroy the government and prevent this future. He saw the world begin to whiten and drain of colour, he lifted his arms and bowed his heads as he disappeared form the future. After a few seconds of nothingness, he reappeared in a dark, wet alleyway, overflowing rubbish bins clustered around on both sides. Theos red eyes scanned the area, he recognised that he was in The Cradle, a old run down district of Station Square, controlled by psychos, a breeding ground of lust and greed and once your there, your life expectancy tends to be on the short side. Theo calmly walked out onto the main street, paying no attention to anyone, he then caught sight of his reflection in one of the shop windows, he stopped and looked, his nose was seeping blood and dried blood was already clumped around his mouth and nose, he had cut his lip which had now swollen slightly. The black veins around his body had spread so know all of his body was covered in vivid black lines, and his fur was bloodstained, his leather trench coat was covered in dust and mud and the black trousers were ripped at the knees, exposing grazes underneath, his quills had become more spiky and thick and were matted with blood.

He grinned and wiped away the blood from his nose with his sleeve, he looked around back at the dark street, he knew that mercenaries hung around in a club here called, his eyes suddenly fell upon the sign a few hundred metres away;

_The Gun and Knife_

If some mercenaries were there, then there was a chance he could find Chaos and Cynder, he didn't know how long had passed, an hour?, a day?, a month? Either way he had to find the feline and the bat. With his hands in his pockets, he began to walk towards the club.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked that, please give a looooooonnnnnnnnggg review with your thought on the story and how its going. Thank to everyone for your help, remember to tell other authors about this story to get it more popular!**


	10. Dead Or Alive

**A/N: I've finally reached the tenth chapter, thanks to everyone for their awesome reviews and to everyone's support. I've also got two possible endings for this story, one good, one evil, I'm going to make a poll on my profile so you guys can vote.**

Theo slammed open the door of the large, dimly lit pub, all eyes turned onto him, and there were a few small whispers and dark murmurs, despite his changed appearance, some of the gang members and mercenaries recognised him, Theo was notorious around here for putting half of the gangs in the area in jail, so he doubted he would be let in unchallenged which was fine by him. Just as his boot thudded down onto the polished floorboards, a large bulky dog shoot up from his seat, brandishing a long, jagged knife,

"You shouldn't be here, sonny" he said menacingly, Theo simply ignored him and walked past him, the dog picked him up by the scruff of his collar so the two were face to face,

"I was talking to you shithead" Theo quickly placed his hand on the dogs chest and sent a small bolt of electricity into the dogs heart, he yelped and dropped him, clutching his chest,

"Why don't you just enjoy your drink, you filthy mongrel" The dog staggered back to his seat and glared at him, the babble of the pub resumed and everything faded back to normal, but a few or the mercenaries still gave him hateful looks. Peeling some of the dried blood off his face, Theo walked over to the bar and lent against it

"Whiskey, on the rocks" the bartender began pouring ice into the glass and filling it with the chestnut liquid, "Also I need to find someone". The bartender pushed the whiskey glass towards him and looked at him across the grimy bar

"Sure, who?" Theo drank some of the whiskey then put the glass down,

"Her name's Chaos, she's about 18, cream coloured, heart shaped breastplate" The bartender frowned thoughtfully then nodded,

"Yeah I know her" he pointed at a staircase that lead up into the bowls of the building "Room 24"

"Thanks" Theo said, downing the last of his drink and throwing the glass to the floor, smashing it

"Hey!" The bartender yelled "Those glasses cost money, you know"

Theo idly waved his hand as he climbed the stairs

"Yeah, yeah". The passage was dark and covered in peeling green wallpaper, a thick smell of alcohol lased the air, his heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor as Theo checked each of faded brass numbers that was screwed onto every door until he found room 24, he knocked, no response, he tried again, still nothing. He tried the handle and found the door unlocked, he stepped through into the dark porch, being as quiet as he could, the room was bathed in the light from a lamp that stood on a desk at the end of the room surrounded in files and papers, Chaos was sleeping in the large double bed that lay against one wall, her breathing was deep and slow and the bottles of wine, beer and vodka that lay all around, suggested she had been drinking the previous night, her outfit was slung over one of the doors of the large oak wardrobe that stood by the curtain covered window, on the other side of the room was a small kitchen that lead straight into the main room. Being careful not to wake her, he walked quietly over to the desk and examined the papers littering it, they were all GUN files, stolen probably, containing pictures of ancient artefacts and old written texts. Pushing past all of this Theo recognised a map of Angel Island, a red circle had been drawn around a tiny ruin called Lost Point and a question mark was scribbled underneath it.

He also recognised a few artist interpretations of Rafael, all different and unique in their own way, then at the very bottom of the pile was a government photo of himself, dressed in GUN uniform in front of the GUN flag, a stern look on his face, below that it read:

_Captain Theodore Arcreus [Type III Agent]- Liability- LEVEL 1- DOA_

He looked at the issue date, October 16th, it had been August when Theo had disappeared into the future, so he had been gone for about 2 months. DOA meant 'Dead or Alive' and Liability Level 1 basically was a massage saying 'They are a very big threat to society, bring them in before they kill everybody'. These flyers were given to soldiers so they could look out for targets, Theo simply chucked to himself and picked up one of the untouched beer bottles that lay on the kitchen counter and un capped it with a hiss. The hiss and the clang of the bottle cap hitting the floor caused Chaos to jerk awake, then she jumped when she saw Theo sitting on the counter swigging out of a bottle of beer, he grinned when he saw her,

"Miss me?"

She straightened up and rubbed her eyes

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Theo placed the bottle down and smiled at her

"I should be asking you the same thing"

She pulled the covers off herself, revealing a light blue nightgown and stood up

"Well you've been gone for two months, I've only been dormant, there is a big difference"

"Why?" Theo said, jumping down from the counter,

"Well, after the attempted attack, New Metropolis stepped up their security, the King is under 24/7 surveillance and the President even shipped over a few battalions of GUN soldiers. NICOLE also informed the King that you were involved in the attack and both him and the President has issued an AAE warrant against you"

"Arrest and Execution" Theo muttered, flicking through the papers again. Chaos nodded and walked over to the kitchen, she picked up an apple from the fruit bowl and bit into it crunching loudly. Theo frowned and turned to Chaos,

"What about you? Do they know about your involvement?" She shrugged and swallowed,

"No idea, but it can't hurt to keep your head down".

Theo turned back to the papers and pointed at the map of Angel Island,

"What has Lost Point got to do with it?" he asked, Chaos smiled and sidled over

"I think that is were Mephiles is going to strike next, because I think that is where Rafael is".

Theo nodded "He might go there, but not to become Rafael"

Chaos raised an eyebrow, "Why wouldn't he become Rafael?" She asked, Theo then proceeded to tell her about what had happened to him; about how the future was obliterated by the government and how Future Theo said that he was Rafael. Chaos listened with a mixture of fascination and confusion and when Theo finished, she looked at him in admiration and fear.

"So I'm Rafael, not Mephiles" Theo stated, Chaos giggled slightly,

"Its not that, that I'm shocked about, I mean, I was your wife"

Theo shrugged

'Well I was kinda shocked about that too".

Chaos then realised something and clicked her fingers,

"Oh I almost forgot to show you something" she moved quickly towards the wardrobe and flung it open, sending her outfit crashing to the floor "I haven't been spending the last two months just sitting here finding out about what's happening" She lifted out a wooden box from the bottom of the clutter "I've also been making these". She whipped open the box, inside was two golden gauntlets with a black glove attached to each, each wristband on the gauntlet looked like a thin revolver chamber and at the bottom of each gauntlet was a short snub-nose gun barrel. Theo removed his tattered left glove and tried on the left gauntlet and clicked the wristband shut with a heavy snap, on the palm of the glove, Theo felt a small round metal switch, Chaos spoke

"The gauntlets have revolver barrels and fire 50. Cal bullets, to fire you turn the safety off" She pointed at a small switch bellow the revolver chamber "Then you clench you fist and press the pressure sensitive switch on the palm".

Theo then flicked open the end of the wristband to reveal the ends of the bullets

"And to reload, I presume that you just empty the bullets and insert some new ones?" Theo inquired, Chaos nodded, Theo took off his other glove and put on the other gauntlet. He moved the gauntlets around, they were bulky and slightly heavy but he could move them around easily.

"These could be useful" Theo muttered, he clicked them off and places them on the desk "Mind if I use your shower?" Theo asked "Its just I need to get this blood off me" He gestured at his bloody face.

"Sure, its just though there" She said pointing at a door past the kitchen. Theo walked in and shut the door, inside the bathroom was a streaked mirror, a grubby sink, a discoloured toilet and a small bath that doubled as a shower, Theo began to remove his clothes, tearing them from the dried blood that stuck them to his skin, he bundled them into a corner of the small bathroom and stepped into the tub, he pulled down the handle for the shower and hot water began to pour from the shower head, the water made some of his wounds sting, making him wince. He picked up a washcloth from the side and began to wipe the blood off his face and chest, the water began to turn pink with his blood, his quills began to droop over his eyes as water soaked into them, he threw the moist cloth down and lifted his head up and closed his eyes, letting the water cascade over his face. He heard the door open slightly and close, he ignored this thinking it must be the wind, then he felt someone climbing into the tub with him. His eyes snapped open, half blinded by the water, he looked and saw Chaos was under the shower with him, her naked body pressed against his. He looked into her orange eyes and frowned,

"Err what are you doing?" but before she could reply, she kissed him, after about thirty seconds, Theo pulled away "This is wrong, I shouldn't be doing this"

Chaos shushed him "Oh shut up and kiss me" Theo obliged and the two sank into the throngs of fiery demonic passion…

Shadow hated GUN's office work; all he did was sidle back and forth between the photocopier and his computer, occasionally sending something important but most of the time he simply browsed the Internet. This day was no different, Shadow was sat at his desk, head on his hand idly skipping through numerous internet pages when the phone rang, yawning slightly he picked it up, eyes still on his computer

"Agent Shadow speaking" He said in a bored voice

"Liven up! I want you in my office in two minutes. Move!" Shadow sighed and put down the phone, he recognised the voice as Commander Towers and by the sound of his voice, he wasn't happy. Shadow turned off the computer and got up out of his chair and walked in between the lines of desks that filled the room, he flung open a set of double doors and walked through them into a long, high-ceiling corridor lined with portraits of various previous commanders. Shadows footsteps echoed off the walls as he walked down the corridor and through a large set of ancient oak doors, into the Commanders office. The office had a high ceiling just like the most of the rooms around, in the centre of the room was a large round holographic image projector or HIP for short, which currently displaying a 3D hologram of a rotating Angel Island. At the end of the room was a long desk covered in various files and papers, the plush carpet sank as Shadow stepped onto it, behind the desk was the Commander, back to the door, staring out of the large floor-to-ceiling windows that dominated the wall, his grey haired head turned as Shadow entered,

"You asked to see me sir?" Shadow asked,

"Yes" The Commander said "Take a seat" he gestured at the various leather sofas that lined the room, Shadow sat down on the sofa nearest the Commander's desk and gazed at his superior with his blood red eyes. The Commander began to pace the room, brow furrowed,

"The reason I called you here, is that I think we have found Arcreus"….

**A/N: hope you guys liked that chapter, I will be having more bits about Shadow in later chapters. Also remember to leave a review, even if you have not reviewed in this story before as I would like to know your views.**

**Remember to vote on the ending pole on my profile!**


	11. Farewell Thunder Child

Shadow blinked,

"I beg your pardon sir?"

"A few hours ago, one of our surveillance units send a picture from the Cradle, we have a 82.6% confirmation that the person photographed was Arcreus" The Commander said, picking up a remote and pointing it at the HIP, the hologram of Angel Island disappeared and was replaced by a hologram of a street, covered with bored up shops and the homeless, burdened with boxes and bundles containing their valuables. Shadow then spotted a grey hedgehog, his clothes torn and covered in blood, his trench coat coated in mud and dust and his quills were spikier than the last time Shadow had seen him. The Commander pointed at the hologram of Theo,

"That's him" he muttered, Shadow leaned forward and looked at the hologram,

"My god, what's happened to him" Shadow asked

"We don't know, but our guess is that he has been sleeping rough for the past two months, trying to keep a low profile" The Commander said, "We need you to go into the Cradle and apprehend him, Dead or Alive". Shadow stood up,

"I can't do that sir, he's my friend" The Commander slammed his palm on the table, making Shadow jump,

"He's a cold hearted murderer, he slaughtered a dozen people and he was involved in a plot to kill King Elias, the Theo you knew before is long gone!" he roared, "We have a chopper crew leaving in 5 minutes. Get some weapons then go!" Shadow thought about arguing back, but decided against it, he nodded,

"Certainly sir, I'll get Arcreus into custody" he turned sharply and left the room.

"I have a bad feeling about this" Shadow thought…

Theo awoke sharply, by someone gently shaking him, he opened his eyes to find that a fully clothed Chaos was gently shaking his shoulders,

"Evening, sleepy-head" she said smiling, Theo grinned and threw the covers off himself, not caring that he was completely naked, he got up and began to look around for his boxer shorts,

"What time is it?" Theo asked, Chaos checked the alarm clock on the bedside table,

"4:20pm"

Theo found his underwear and put them on, yawning slightly as he did so,

"Sleep well?" he asked, Chaos smiled as she sifted through the files and papers,

"I was sleeping with you, idiot, of course I would have slept well" Theo blushed slightly and began to put on his blood soaked trousers and shirt.

"What are you looking for?" Theo asked, walking over to the table to wear Chaos was searching through the mountain of papers,

"I'm just trying to work out where to go next" Chaos sighed,

"Why don't we just head straight to Lost Point?" Theo asked

"Well according to some ancient manuscripts, a ritual is required to give you the power to become Rafael, but" She flicked through some more papers "The requirements for that ritual aren't here"

"Shit" Theo muttered "So back to square one then".

"Not quite"

Theos ears pricked up "What?"

Chaos pulled out a picture from the bottom of the pile, showing a tall thin man with neatly-combed grey hair and tiny eyes obscured by his big bushy eyebrows.

"This is Professor Albert Pickle, he's a professor of archaeology at Spagonia University".

"And?" Theo asked

"Well he's the man who assembled all of these files for GUN but he deliberately left out the ritual, for fear of it falling into the wrong hands"

"So if we go to Spagonia.." Theo reasoned

"We can find him and get the information out of the bastard" Chaos finished, Throwing the picture back onto the pile, at the back of Theos mind like a small annoying insect was another reason that he wanted to see the professor, but this thought was so crazy that he ignored it, the humming of a helicopter sounded over head but they both ignored it.

"Spagonia is at least an 8 hour drive on a decent motorbike" Theo said walking over to the cabinet and clasping on the gauntlets "So first things first we need to-

He was cut off by a loud shattering sound as the window smashed as a rain of bullets pelted through it, ripping apart the wall behind,

"DOWN!" Theo yelled and grabbed Chaos by the shoulder and threw themselves down to the floor. The bullets ceased and the dust began to settle, Theo anxiously crawled towards the door, he turned back to look at Chaos,

"Try and draw its fire, I'm gonna head outside and see what the hell is happening"

Chaos opened her mouth to protest but then decided against it and nodded.

"Ok, three, two, one. GO!" Theo yelled and sprung to his feet, the bullets began to rip up the room again as Theo raced towards the door, meanwhile Chaos rolled so she was crouched underneath the smashed window and she quickly launched bolts of lightening blindly out of the window at irregular intervals, trying to hit the target. Theo threw himself at the door, the hinges snapped, sending the door and Theo crashing into the corridor, however Theo was still travelling with speed, his head smashed into the door, causing an incisor in his upper jaw to stab itself into his bottom lip, he winced, he felt blood beginning to ooze out of the wound and trickled down his chin, he scrambled up and edged his way down the dust covered hallway, each footstep picking up a small plumb of dust. He heard more gunfire coming from the room and more electricity being fired, but he didn't stop to look. He clicked the safety off both gauntlets and checked they were loaded to their maximum capacity, He heard the door burst open down in the pub and the pair of at least a dozen rhythmical footsteps march into the bar, then some yells and screams and then a few seconds later a few warning shots that silenced the room into a whispering grace.

Theo moved forward slowly so he was almost peering down the staircase that led down to the pub, however his foot stepped on a dust covered floor-board that creaked loudly, however the silence in the pub bellow ensured that the footstep was heard and it didn't help that his boots were quite heavy. He heard footsteps hurry over to the foot of the stairs, and the unmistaken sounds of assault rifles being loaded,

"_Come on out, Arcreus, this is GUN, come out with your hands up"_

"Fuck" Theo muttered and straightened up, an incredibly ferocious plan sidled into Theos head, it would mean that he could obliterate all of the GUN forces but it would also mean that a load of innocent people would have the shit kicked out of them, but as if he could give a damn. He began to walk down the steps, each heavy footstep echoing around the bar; even the gunfire from the upper floor had stopped.

When he was half way down he could see that the door was now lying in splinters, and over 20 GUN soldiers had filled the room and had the mercenaries lined up against the wall so that the bar was calm and clear, cracked glasses and smashed bottles of exotic liquers lay scattered across the floor like children's playthings. Six soldiers were lined up at the bottom of the stairs, their guns raised, cold, battle hardened eyes gazing up at him, Theo knew that look all to well, it was the look of someone who was determined to kill, no matter the cost.

"Lye on the staircase with your hands behind your back" one of the soldiers yelled at him, Theo simply chuckled darkly, he raised his hands in mock surrender, one of the soldiers approached and quick as a flash, Theo grabbed the barrel of his gun and bent the barrel upwards, completely contorting the metal, then using the barrel he threw his fist round and smashed the edge of the gauntlet into the soldiers head, crushing his skull, the other soldiers opened fire on him, Theo threw the body at the line of soldiers, making them stubble, Theo took this chance and darted forwards and fired five bullets from the left gauntlet as he moved, each projectile hitting its target, since the bullets were 50. Calibre, they punched through the soldiers, throwing bits of flesh and pints of blood all around. The other soldiers aimed at him, Theo jumped up and swung off the chandelier, the roof began to tear itself apart from the hail of bullets that came his way, he jumped down and landed on top of one of the soldiers, he quickly pinned his head down and fired two bullets into the soldiers head, blowing it apart and throwing up blood into Theo's face. Then he felt a butt of a gun slam into the back of his head, making him collapse forward in a daze, his hands were yanked behind his back and a pair of bulky handcuffs were attached on to him.

Theo felt blood, hot and wet run down his head, he began to become concerned whether the head injury was serious or not, he was yanked to his feet by a large sergeant and forced out of the door and into the evening air. Theo looked around, clearly this had been a large operation, three choppers circled above the street and one was hovering next to the window in which Chaos was fighting it off, it let loose another hail of bullets from the two gatling guns attached to its belly, dropping thousands of tiny bullet casings on to the street bellow. Armoured convoys covered every exit and about 50 soldiers patrolled the deserted street, from whichever way he looked at it, his situation looked grim,

"We got you, you son of a bitch" Shadow said, pushing his way through the giant platoon to reach the party coming out of the pub, he walked towards them so he and Theo were face to face.

"Your looking well" Theo snarled "Hows your shit job with a corrupt government coming along?'" Shadow punched Theo in the stomach, making him double over, blood rose up his throat and Theo spat it out onto the pavement, staining his lips crimson.

"What happened to you?" Shadow asked, his voice now concerned, Theo smirked

"I saw the truth" Shadow glared at him,

"Get him out of my god-damn sight" The soldiers continued to march Theo forward towards a GUN truck, its back doors hanging open, preparing to receive him. Theo then laughed long and hard, like a madman as he was dragged towards it, this unnerved Shadow,

"What's so funny?" Shadow demanded, his hands curling into fists, Theo turned his head and for a split second, Shadow saw the demon, eating away at him in his eyes, Theo managed to subdue himself to a fit of giggles,

"It's just that…GUN _really _needs to get better handcuffs" and just before Shadow realised what happened, Theo snapped the cuffs off and electrocuted the guards either side of him, they fell, bodies shivering from the voltage coursing through them.

"OPEN FIRE!" Shadow yelled, the fifty soldiers all simultaneously opened fire, the gunfire echoing and ricocheting off the buildings defining everyone, Theo fired bolts of electricity at the GUN army, bullets were cutting through him, but his power was healing them instantly, but the blood still flowed from the crinkled holes of the healing bullet wounds. The three copters began to descend, and fire at him, the tarmac began to rip itself apart, throwing up dust and bits of rock that peppered Theo's chest. Theo bowed his head and raised his arms, and began to charge up electricity in his hands, but did not fire, he simply stood there and took the fire from the soldiers.

"What the fuck is he doing?" Shadow yelled, confused, then he felt something change in the air, his fur began to stand on end but not with cold or with fear, but something else. The 50. calibre bullets tore into Theo, Theo grunted and fell to his knees, blood flowing faster and more ferociously from his body, he still kept his arms raised, electricity jumping between his fingers. Seeing this Shadow realised what he was doing.

"GET THE FUCK OUT-" Shadow screamed, but Theo then released his plan, the static electricity all around them, burst forth, amplified and chaotic. Its raw energy cut its way through everyone, causing their hearts to either give out or for their brains to give up first causing them to pass out, the electricity flowed through the very air, cooking off the fuel in the convoys and choppers causing them to explode violently, throwing debris into the air and releasing choking black smoke into the heavens. Theo was stopped over, electricity running through his, rupturing his organs and instantly healing him; his ebony veins spread and pulsed as he let loose the electricity, blood began to flow from his eyes, his ears, his nose and his mouth. His screaming died away as the electricity faded from the air, Theo gasped as if he had just been held underwater, he staggered and fell, panting and retching up bloody vomit onto the tarmac.

"CHAOS!" he screamed through his retches, she didn't appear but the mercenaries were now running outside onto the scene of carnage,

"Holy shit!" the large dog, who had threatened him earlier said, his eyes wide.

"He's over there" someone shouted, the group ran towards Theo who was now lying on his back, breathing quickly and shallowly, his eyes rolled and he gratefully blacked out.

Shadows eyes opened slowly, his head spinning, his mouth dripping blood, he sat up and looked around at the devastation all around, the convoys and choppers lay in ruins, nothing more than piles of twisted blackened metal spewing smoke, bodies lay all over the road, either dead or unconscious but he didn't stop to check, the sky was dark so it had been a good few hours since he had passed out and it seemed that anarchy reined on the street. Some of the building either side were burning with a devilish ferocity. Shadow stooped down and picked up a sub-machine gun from the body of a dead soldier. He began to walk forward towards the Gun and Knife bar, gun raised, preparing for the worst.

Then by the door, he noticed a cream coloured cat, her body curled into a ball, her clothes were ripped and covered in blood, she was shivering and whimpering slightly. Shadow approached her and gently tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up and wheeled up right and began to hurriedly back away into the wall,

"Hey, hey take it easy" Shadow said "You're Chaos right?"

"Yes" she said, her voice laced with fear,

"What happened?" Shadow asked

"He wiped us out, everyone's dead, he killed everyone in that bar" she whispered her face strewn with tears,

"Theo?".

She nodded she gulped and began to talk slowly,

"He woke up in a bad state, the blast had taken its toll on him, we had patched him up, I said that we need to find some way for him to become Rafael. Then he just started killing everyone. One after the other, stabbing them, gutting them, shooting them, within two minutes, everyone was dead, except me". Chaos let out a dry sob and continued "Then he picked me up and- and"

"Raped you" Shadow finished her sentence, she nodded

"Then he simply tossed me aside like a used toy and took off" Shadows face when white, at the story, Chaos shivered and continued "Something changed about him in that blast, now, the demon has been revealed"

"Ok" Shadow said, comfortingly "Stay here, I'll be one minute". He got up and walked towards the shattered remains of the door that led into the bar, he pushed it open and was greeted by a grizzly sight. Mutilated bodies lay everywhere, blood soaking into the floor boards, their bodies either burned beyond recognition or sliced open with their entrails hanging out, flies feasted on the open flesh, planting their maggoty spawn upon it. On the far wall, a skunk was hung on the dart board his chest ripped open and darts skewered in his guts, making stomach acid and bile drip from the burst organs. Shadow grimaced and turned away, disgusted by the horror,

"Farewell, Thunder Child" Shadow muttered, he had coined the name "Thunder Child" for Theo when he first showed off his powers properly and when he was older he always listened to the musical version of The War Of The Worlds, and Thunder Child was the name of the warship that gets destroyed in it. Shadow picked up the sobbing Chaos and walked away, glancing around for any sign of a radio with which he could use to contact HQ; his own had been melted in the static blast.

He placed Chaos on the floor among the bodies as he spotted a slightly charred radio lying on its side, he picked it up and turned it on, a burst of static came through the radio, it worked, he tuned it into frequency and spoke into it.

"Shadow to GUN HQ, do you read me?, over"

"_Roger we do read, over"_

"I have a Code Black situation, at least 50 casualties, and all equipment has been destroyed and the target has escaped, over".

"_Roger, Code Black received, relief squad are en route to your position, over and out"_. Shadow turned off the radio and sat down on the floor next to Chaos and sank into the nightmare that had just happened, trying to make sense of it all.

Theo raced though the desert on a stolen purple and silver motorcycle, his quills flying around in the high wind, the moonlight made the sand glow deep silver. The road was dark and deserted, Theo knew that at this speed, he would reach Spagonia in under 6 days, which was fine by him. He now knew, he won't for fill destiny and do nothing, neither will he become Rafael, he will destroy both sides with no mercy, and in Spagonia lay his key to doing this. He smiled and raced on into the desolated night…

**A/N: Please review, I would like to know your views on this game-changing chapter. Remember to vote on the Good/Evil poll on my profile. Till next time!**


	12. The Shape Of Things To Come

**A/N: Remember to vote on the ending poll as we are only THREE (not including this one) chapters away from this stories end, I NEED A DEFINITE DECISION! I have separated endings in mind for both. I would implore you ALL to go to my profile after and vote on which ending your would like to see, after you review of course. On with Chapter 12.**

Theo pulled up outside a small diner in a tiny village, 65 miles outside Spagonia, it had been heavily raining earlier and now the road shone with a crystal sheet along with his sand blasted bike. He cut the growl of the engine and got off, he had ditched his coat and other clothing a few days ago and had replaced it with thick brown trousers, black armour shoes that crunched like snow on the pavement, a brown, buttoned up jacket, its elbows torn and fraying and a beige cape tied around his neck, he has custom made a balaclava so that his quills could fit inside it, it covered all of his face and head apart from his eyes which he covered with a pair of brown, heavily tinted goggles. He got off the bike and walked towards the door of the diner, head down, trying not to make himself noticed too much.

A small bell rang as he entered the diner, a few people looked around but no one took much notice, a lot of strange people from foreign lands must have past through here, so he wouldn't be any different. He walked over to the counter and sat on stool opposite, he looked around; the diner was packed with people, all young families or workers on a lunch break. Theo sighed, his voice had altered over the past week, it had become deeper and much more sinister, more fitting for a demon,

"Great" Theo thought, "I'm the only stranger in this place, I guess that everyone else in here are just common citizens from around". A waiter walked to the opposite side of the counter,

"May I take your order, sir?"

"Yeah, whiskey, on the rocks"

The waiter walked off and Theo turned his attention back to the diner at large, a large TV hung from the corner of the room, displaying a news report, he sat there and listened to it, it was barely a whisper in the babble of the diner but he could just here it. The screen cut back to the studio,

_Our Breaking News today, Spagonia is experiencing temperature fluctuations of over 25oC, the greatest in recorded history. Seismographs have also recorded earthquakes up to a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale, however these seem only confined to the city._

"Turn it up" Theo grunted at the waiter as he brought the small glass of whiskey, drenched in ice,

"Pardon?" the waiter asked, confused,

"Turn the fucking thing up," He growled, darkly. The waiter obeyed, startled. Theo pulled the balaclava off and rested the goggles on his forehead, his features were now so altered that he didn't think anyone would recognise him, his fur had darkened another shade, but his skin was now almost paper white, amplifying the black veins that coursed the length of his flesh, his red iris's had brightened, so they looked like they were constantly in the sun, dark circles had formed under his eyes from lack of sleep. He placed the glass to his lips and drank, his eyes fixed on the screen.

_Weather surveys also suggest that storm systems may also be starting to appear towards the evening, the Mayor of Spagonia has issued a statement saying that evacuation operations are underway, world hero Sonic the Hedgehog along with fellow Freedom Fighters are now en route to help with evacuation of citizens._

"See I _told _you!"

Theo turned to see a small beaver arguing with his brother on a nearby table, their mother looked embarrassed and tried to shush them, his brother began to argue, picking up one of the action figures scattered on their table, which Theo noticed to be a smaller, plastic version of himself, complete with coat and his pure white fur, if only that kid could see him now.

"I prefer Theo, he could beat Sonic any day" The beaver's brother said, throwing his hand up and pretending to unleash a lightening bolt, and making a explosion noise with his mouth. Their mother now looked annoyed,

"I've told before, Simon, Theo's not a very nice man, he used to be, but not anymore"

"But Mum, he's awesome" Simon said, his brother picked up a Sonic figurine and began to argue with his brother once again. Theo chuckled and turned his attention back to his drink. Staring into the alcohol, Theo suddenly thought of something, he looked around the diner and saw a person on his laptop; he got up and strode towards the person, with out asking, he snatched the laptop off him,

"Hey! What the hell?" the man yelled at him, getting up and chasing after him,

"Stuff it" Theo muttered, pushing the man back with one hand, while balancing the laptop in his arm, he began to type, hacking into GUN's mainframe, the business plans on screen disappeared, instantly replaced by fast moving documents appearing and disappearing on screen as Theo searched, his fingers moving as quick as lightening. He was searching, examining all of the weather forecasts for Spagonia and the surrounding regions, and comparing it to demonic omens that had been recorded over thousands of years. After a few minutes, he tossed the laptop back to the annoyed businessman, he fumblingly caught it, glaring at Theo, but Theo simply stared at him, his dark red eyes piercing his.

The businessman shivered and turned away, with out a word, Theo smirked and walked away picking up his drink and draining the last of it, as he swallowed he banged the glass down onto the beaver families table, startling them, then with a small spark he melted the figurines that lay on the table, reducing them to a bubbling heap of plastic and resin. One of the children on the table began to cry but Theo took no notice, he simply walked out of the diner and onto the street, he looked into the distance, in the distance he saw black clouds on the horizon over towards the direction of Spagonia, there was a bright flash of lightening in the distance, followed almost a minute later by a distant rumble of thunder. He pulled the balaclava on and pulled the goggles on, he straddled the bike and kicked started it, the engine rumbled then roared as Theo pulled off and speeded towards the stormy horizon. The weather patterns and atmospheric readings had all suggested one thing compared with the omens; a mass demonic gathering, and where there were demons, Mephiles may not be far behind…

Shadow was sat in the back of a large military van, along with Sonic, and the other Freedom Fighters, the van was speeding along a half-empty highway towards Spagonia; the journey should only take about six hours from New Metropolis, and they had been travelling for about half that time. Shadow picked up an assault rifle from the pile at the back, and began to examine it,

"Why you using that thing, Shads?" Sonic asked, eyebrow raised, Shadow, tugged the barrel down and checked the ammunition.

"Well, you can't be too careful" Shadow muttered, not looking at him, Tails frowned

"Its only an evacuation mission Shadow, not a assassination" Shadow chugged the gun back onto the pile and lent back, eyes closed

"Well, I don't know" Shadow said. Rouge playfully punched him in the arm,

"Is that your intuition playing up again, Shadow?" Shadow opened one eye,

"I'm not god damn, Sherlock Holmes; its just…a feeling".

"Yeah, yeah; whatever Shadow" Knuckles muttered, brushing some of his red dreadlocks out of his eyes. Shadow reached down and picked up a small net book from a back next to him, he flicked up the screen and looked at the weather patterns flickering across the map on the screen,

"Looks like the mother of all storms is coming" Shadow muttered, Amy looked out of the window at the ever-growing storm in the distance, a mixture of fear and determination in her light green eyes,

"How long until we arrive" she asked,

"I guess about, three hours" Sonic said, Shadow moved the weather patterns out the way and opened a file, Rouge looked over his shoulder and sighed when she saw what it was,

"Not the Arcreus case, _again_ Shadow" She whined,

"I need to find that bastard, he killed a whole battalion and almost killed me" Shadow said through gritted teeth,

"So that's why you're on the painkillers" Knuckles said,

"You try having your insides shocked with all the static electricity around you".

"Oh yeah, how's that Chaos girl" Silver asked, head resting on his hands

"She's ok, she's still at GUN, I asked her whether she wanted to help but she refused" Rouge said, as Shadow was still engrossed in the Arcreus file, A earpiece began to ring next to him, he snatched it up and placed it in his ear,

"Yes?"

_I've found something that could be of interest to you, my friend_, it was Levinski, he sounded grim,

"Right patch it through"

_I think you better show this to everyone, especially Ghost and Luna_

Shadow frowned "Why?" There was a beeping noise as the file got transferred to his netbook,

_It concerns the Legacy Gene,_

Shadow turned to the group at large,

"Hey, Levinski's found something" He turned the netbook round to face the group, at the back, Ghost, who was snoring softly and Luna who was thinking deeply to herself, both snapped out of what they were doing, at Shadows call.

"What is it?" Ghost grunted getting up and moving closer to the screen, balancing himself of the wall "I was trying to get some god-damn shut-eye", Shadow placed the earpiece next to the netbook and switched it onto loudspeaker so everyone could hear.

_You and Luna better pay attention, anyway, as some of you know, the Legacy Gene has been around for quite awhile, the Kingdom of Acorn have been experimenting with it for years, hoping to use it for weaponry. However, a few months ago it broke out and infected 89% of the population of Neon City, Ghost, Luna and Theo along with a small group of soldiers were some of the only people to get out of that place alive._

Luna shivered slightly

"God, don't remind me" she uttered, the screen showed a slideshow of pictures and aerial photographs of Neon city after the infection had been eradicated, bodies littered the streets, some buildings lay in ruins and others had been completely obliterated.

"My god" Silver muttered, his previous tiredness now replaced with the cold stab of horror and disgust "How many died?"

_Around_ _2.6 million, but GUN kept it all classified, but no computer system can stop me_.

The image now changed to a view of one of the infected corpses, its skin was tight and ripped, soft pink flesh oozed from the gashes, one of its eyes looked like it had popped, the gooey residue clung to the eye socket in strands, a stream on blood was trickling down the pus filled face from the wound. Sonic swallowed and turned away, he had been in the most battles out of all of them, but he had seen nothing like this.

_When the virus infects you, you don't become a zombie, you're not slow, or weak or stupid, on the contrary, you become much stronger and faster than normal, and you know exactly what you're doing. But they aren't immune to bullets, several good shots will kill them _Levinski continued, _But if the virus runs its course, within five years the infected die_

"Why are you telling us this?" Shadow asked,

_Because about half an hour ago, a lab, containing the Legacy Gene on the west coast was broken into_,_ when reinforcements arrived, they found that the virus had escaped and everyone in the facility had become infected, only two people got out and now its spreading rapidly, GUN forces are desperately trying to contain the threat_.

"No" Ghost said, his eyes wide with shock "That can't be"

_I'm sorry but it is, I'm going to a strong hold in the south with GUN, but your mission still stand, get everyone out of Spagonia. Out_

Shadow said nothing, he simply put the net book down and tossed the earpiece away, The van suddenly swerved, making everyone move violently inside, Tails was visibly shivering with fear,

"How far away from the west coast are we?" he asked, his voice trembling,

"Well….oh shit" Ghost said

"What?" Luna asked,

"Well if we are on Highway 15, then we _are_ on the west coast"

"Then that means" Amy muttered, as the realisation dawned upon them all

"They-

Ghost was then interrupted by a scraping noise, the van slammed into something, throwing everyone towards the front of the van, Shadow could hear yelling and gunshots outside, he untangled himself from the bundle of bodies,

"Is everyone alright?"

Sonic groaned, "Never better"

"Yeah I'm ok" Luna said, standing up and brushing her clothes down, Shadow straightened up and walked towards the doors,

"Where are you going?" Knuckles asked,

"To see what happened" Shadow grunted, picking up an assault rifle from the buckled metal floor; he grabbed a few magazines from the benches and attached them to his belt. He smashed open the doors and jumped down from the van and onto the road. They had crashed into a cluster of abandoned cars, one of few that now littered the road ahead of them, walking round to the front of the van, he found the driver dead, his chest impaled by a piece of wreckage that stuck out of one of the cars. Then he heard a wailing yell, he looked up the highway and saw in the distance, people running towards him, on closer inspection he saw, the infected, their diseased faces bloated and disfigured and they were heading straight for them.

"Guys" He yelled to the van "Grab some guns and get the fuck out here"

He slotted a magazine into its slot on the gun and locked it with a click

"To the end" he murmured, before firing at the horde of infected streaming towards them…

**A/N: Remember to vote on the poll and leave a review about your thoughts on this story. Peace out!**


	13. Outnumbered

**A/N: on with chapter 13, we are TWO chapters away from the end, I have chosen an ending to use but I'm not saying which. Enjoy!**

_The Federal Governments along with The Kingdom Of Acorn have issued evacuation orders for the surrounding areas following the Legacy Gene outbreak along the west coast. The Kingdom of Acorn has issued an order for all citizens to report to New Metropolis for containment and quarantine… _

_Mobius World News, 26__th__ October 3164_

Theo sped along the dual carriageway, his brown cloak whipping behind him as the wind caught it, His head was down, almost touching the handlebars and his eyes were focused into the distance, the storm in the distance was brewing and churning as if the clouds were a vat of bubbling liquid, lightening was striking almost every second and the explosions of thunder was louder than the wind in his ears. Checkpoints had littered the last 20 miles but Theo had expertly avoided them, he _needed _to get in Spagonia without being noticed, but this was getting steadily harder and harder as he drew closer. Then cars started to swerve and turn the other way like rats, Theo had to swerve violently as the traffic roared towards him, a women stuck her head out of the window and yelled at him as Theo began to slow down,

"For god sake, turn around and get the hell out of here!"

But before he could answer she drove off, swerving and skidding away form the opposite traffic, he turned and looked into the distance, something was moving quickly in his direction, ripping apart anyone in their way staining the air a misty red, he stopped the bike, ceasing the purrs and growls from the engine. He now recognised the blotted features and grotesque mutilation of the horde rapidly closing in,

"Legacy Gene" He muttered, he remembered the horror in Neon City and anger started to build like an ever-increasing tide. He pulled the balaclava off along with the goggles and tossed them aside, he turned the safety off on the gauntlets and let electricity flow onto his hands, making it spark off and hit the metal bodies of the cars all around.

The horde caught his sent an began to advance on him, ignoring others and going straight for him, Theo began to jog towards them, eyes blazing with anger, electricity roaring through him. Then both he and the infected began to run towards each other closing the gap fast, Theo jumped, high above the horde, fist raised, crimson electricity crackling over it; the infected scrambled for him, but all missed, Theo brought his fist down on the ground, cracking the road and throwing the surrounding infected back from the resulting shockwave. Theo roared at them and threw himself at the crowd, slamming electrified fists into skulls and faces, he felt some of the bones collapse in on themselves from the force of the punches with sickening crunches, when he landed the infected pounced upon him, slashing at him with unblocked rage, Theo leaned back as far as he could away from the bloated fingers of the infected, but he would only be safe for a few seconds, he had to act fast. He curled up and kicked his feet up at the faces of the infected, he felt a shudder up his leg as metal his bone, he kicked himself upright, throwing the infected off him; however he was still surrounded on all sides by the monsters, some were only a few inches away, he held the closest ones back with his hands, avoiding the numerous pairs of gnashing teeth, he pushed them back, quickly he clenched his fists and fired a bullet from each gauntlet, they hit the closest two infected. Blood and flesh splattered all over, hitting the crowd of infected and Theo, soaking his clothing, he then began to fire at random, spinning around and clenching his fists, firing bullets at the horde, blood rained from the sky, the multiple gunshots muted everything else in the world, they flowed in the air like notes in a symphony, then there was a click as both gauntlets ran out of bullets.

"Shit!" Theo yelled, the infected moved forward with inhuman speed, "NOOOOOOOO!" Theo yelled, electricity surged through him, he began to rise into the air, electricity arcing off him, hitting the surrounding crowd, incinerating some of them, He looked at the crowd; he managed to count at least fifty infected all staring at him in what looked like, disbelief. There was a huge rumble of thunder above and a giant red bolt of lightening hit the road, ripping up the road and causing the cars to explode, wreckage flying into the air like ash from a volcanic eruption. More lightening bolts hit the ground all around, dust and smoke flying up into the air; the infected screamed and tried to run away from the chaos, Theo gazed down at them,

"Oh no you don't" Theo muttered, he pointed his hand at them and a shockwave burst forth from his hand, hitting all of the surrounding crowd, they flew twenty feet away from him, their bodies electrified with over 29,000 volts of pure energy. Even after the infected had escaped their mortal coils, Theo kept striking the road and anyone close, never wanting the power to leave, a dozen bolts of crimson lightening suddenly struck the bare ground, the elevated highway around him cracked and fell, spiralling down the cliff bellow, the road bellow him still stood upright but the highway on either side flipped and spiralled as the lightening hit the supporting pillars, causing cars and people to get thrown up with it like some insane inflatable castle, The highway thrashed and cracked once more and crashed down the tall chalk cliff face in which the supporting pillars had been built in to. Theo stopped the energy overload and glided gracefully back onto the small patch of land that remained standing from the monstrous blast. He looked around the burning scene of devastation that hung all around, bodies of both the well and the infected lay scattered like crumbs all around, either burned from the lightening, or crushed or skewered from the falling wreckage. The overhanging part of the highway was all but destroyed, its fallen carcass lying in pieces in the crystal blue sea bellow.

"Great" Theo said "Now how the fuck am I going to get out of here?" Then he thought of something, he had seen his father do it a couple of times but he himself had never ever tried it. He thought hard and parted the air with his hands, instantly a seething black portal opened up before him,

"Lets hope this works" He muttered before stepping through, the portal snapped shut behind him and all was silent on the decimated cliff top…

Screaming filled the air like oxygen, both from the fleeing refugees and the infected, bearing down on them, Shadow was crouched on top of an overturned truck, firing at the huge crowd of infected surrounding them, his left arm was bleeding heavily the blood dribbled over the edge of his glove and ran down his fingers but he didn't care, the bottom of his left eye had been bruised from a collision with the top of the truck when he had jumped onto it and hadn't landed correctly. One of the infected tried to climb up the overturned cab of the truck, but Shadow ran over and kicked it straight in the face, he felt the bone break under his foot, the wheeled backwards and fell crashing into its warped brethren. Shadow was holding up fine, to him, this was just another mission, but he was mainly concerned about Sonic and Tails, both of which had never used a gun or indeed had any effective weapon against the infected, to his left he saw Sonic fumbling with a handgun, the car that he was perched on was quickly being surrounded by infected, their distended hands clawing at him,

"You need more ammo! You've ran out" Shadow yelled at him, Sonic quickly unclipped the empty magazine from its hold and replaced it, hands still shaking; he was beaten up pretty bad, his knees and elbows were grazed and oozing blood, scratches littered his face; his right arm was hanging at an odd angle, Shadow suspected it to be broken. Sonic managed to shoot some of the infected off the car, but he flinched every single time he shot. Tails on the other hand was pretty much screwed the way he was going, he couldn't control the automatic rifle he had been given, he fired for too long and at random, and it took him ages to reload, his chest had been clawed to hell, and he was losing a lot of blood, he had twisted his ankle badly and was dragging it behind him, but he did have one slight advantage, when the infected surrounded him, he could simply fly away but due to his sapped strength; not for long. Knuckles was helping him out, pummelling the infected and keeping most of them off Tails, blood coated his gloves and he had a long gash that ran from his cheek to his eye, but otherwise he was fine.

Shadow ran to the back of the van, on which Rouge was perched, she was cut all over and her clothes were bloody, she couldn't rely on her fighting stills like Knuckles, instead she was using a shotgun, its shells strapped around her waist.

"We've got to get out of here!" He yelled at her "We're getting fucking slaughtered"

"No!" She yelled back "We can keep going!" But before Shadow could reply, something black and smoky descended from the clouds and streaked towards them, Shadow raised his gun but, instead of going for them, the cloud-like objects swirled around them, ripping apart, infected at will and leaving the Freedom fighters unharmed,

"What the hell?" Sonic yelled, dropping his gun and cradling his broken arm. The black storm ceased and the smoke began to reform itself into a person, a black bat immerged from the shadows, spiked black armour glinting, her eyes cast over the scene of devastation and smiled,

"I never knew I could do _that_. Awesome!" she walked forward "Is everyone ok?", but instead of giving a reply, Shadow jumped down and raised his gun at her

"Who the hell are you?" He asked, she raised her hands in mock surrender

"Easy, babe watch were you point that thing"

"You didn't answer my question" She sighed and walked towards him until the barrel of the gun was touching her chest plate,

"Are you really going to put a bullet in me" she asked, Shadow frowned doubtfully, she leaned forward until her face was centimetres away from his "See? I _know_ you wouldn't". She turned away and walked over to a fallen Amy, her body bloody, clothes ripped beyond repair, arms and legs slashed, she picked he up and passed her over to Knuckles,

"Take her somewhere safe" She said, Knuckles grudgingly obeyed and walked off with Amy in his arms, The black bat turned to Shadow, "My name is Cynder, or as some of your people call me, "The Artificial Demon", I'm a mercenary and I used to work for Mephiles the Dark along with Chaos and Theo Arcreus, but things happened and we disbanded".

"Why did you just save us?" Shadow asked, gun still pointed at her,

"Well I did and you" she pointed at Shadow "Should be thankful"

Tails limped forward towards Shadow; without looking at him, Shadow spoke to him,

"How is everyone?"

"We're all pretty screwed up, Silver has dislocated his knee and Blaze had been clawed pretty badly, but no one has lethal wounds"

"Ok, then" Shadow put the gun down and walked towards Cynder, "Make yourself useful and help out, the infected will be back soon". Shadow followed Tails, Cynder hot on his heels, they walked around an overturned bus and to where Silver was laying on the ground, Blaze sat next to him, bandages wrapped round her arms and legs. Silvers leg was lying at an odd angle and the pain was clearly shown on his face, sweat glistened on his forehead.

"Ok, Silver" Shadow said, crouching next to his dislocated leg, "I'm going to relocate this, its gonna hurt like hell so relax, on three" He grabbed both sides of leg either side of the knee "One" he pushed both sides together, there was a crunch and Silver screamed in pain, tears streamed from his eyes, his screams turned into grunts after a minute,

"You ok?" Blaze asked

"Oh never better" Silver grunted, Shadow held out his hand out and Silver grabbed it and Shadow pulled him up, he was shaky on his feet but he seemed ok. Cynder tapped Shadow on the shoulder,

"We need to go, now!" Cynder said

"How? Fly" Shadow asked,

"I've already sorted that out" Shadow heard a rush of air and then the world around him blacken out.

Theo stepped out of the portal into a large grand room, with a high domed ceiling; it was it by a grand chandelier that hung above and papers, books and maps overflowed off every surface, and the entrance to the outside world was barricaded and fortified. But something immediately drew his attention, in the centre of the room was a large oval table on which stood a metal ball, about the size of a football, covered in buttons and switches, a small window was set into the sphere, inside was a smaller, glowing sphere of what looked like liquid metal, somehow supported by an electromagnetic or gravitational field. The metal sphere glowed a bright blue, casting its cobalt light all over the room, Theo walked up and picked up the metal ball by the handle built onto of it and he gazed at the liquid metal inside, as if hypnotised by its radiant blue light, he could hear a faint humming noise from its centre.

"So what the hell are you?" Theo muttered he replaced it and looked through the papers clustered around it, he spotted blueprints in between the bits of yellowed paper, he pulled them out and examined them, then he noticed something, the liquid core was made of a metal called "Daemonaseptium", Theo knew that this metal was a synthetic metal, used as power source in some power plants, why was Daemonaseptium being used in this…. thing?

Theo examined more of the blue prints, then he found what he was looking for, the Professor hadn't just been building any old science project, he had been building a bomb, and not just any bomb, this one was designed to kill Demons only. Theo spotted a map of Spagonia pinned to the wall opposite, someone had drawn on it with red marker pen, vaulting one of the tables Theo walked over to the map and looked at it, a circle was drawn around a cathedral in the centre of the city and two words had been written next to it

_Rafael…_

_Hellgate…_

He had heard of the Hellgate, the place where the demon world met the mobian one, could this be what Mephiles was after?

He looked through the glass dome of the roof as a rumble of thunder sounded overhead followed swiftly by a flash of lightening; Theo put two and two together…and froze, the demonic omens were a sign, a sign that the Hellgate was being opened, Theo desperately tried to remember the song about the Hellgate

_Six days is all it takes,_

_It lies in darkness, dead to all_

_When opened, shadows fall_

_The demons chaos makes_

_Our world no more_

So, according to the song, he had only six days until the Hellgate broke open and demons overran the world. And if he finished the bomb, if he took over from the Professor who had fled a long time ago, he could destroy the Demons before they cross. But what about Rafael? Theo knew that he wouldn't become that, but someone could, someone like Mephiles. Either way he had to finish the bomb before the six days were out.

"Lets get to work" Theo muttered…

**A/N: Remember to REVIEW with your thoughts, even if you haven't reviewed before, I am happy to check out any story that you guys want and I will offer advise if needed. See ya later!**

**PS: Because school is starting soon, chapter updates will slow down. Sorry!**


	14. Doomsday

**A/N: This is the last chapter; I've managed to fit everything into this final chapter. Enjoy**

**SIX DAYS LATER…**

Theo woke up suddenly as a giant rumble of thunder sounded overhead, he was greeted by a colossal headache that felt as if every neuron in his brain had been torn apart and put back together with nails and glue. He groaned and sat up, he had fallen asleep at the desk, head in his hands, a tumbler of whiskey nearby, the bottle standing, half-filled next to it like a overlooking guardian.

"God my head" Theo muttered, the demon bomb was lying near his left arm, glowing softly, thick wires were attached to it like the tentacles of some monster, a small USB cable ran from the bomb to a small laptop lying nearby, on which was displayed a red bar, unreadable coding above and below it, the bar was about one third full and it slowly edged towards the end, when it finished, the bomb would be ready for detonation, but according to the screen it wouldn't finish for another five hours, if he left it too long, the Hellgate would open and hell would be unleashed upon the chaos-bound planet, and…Game Over. He wasn't sure what the laptop was uploading into the bomb, probably a stabilisation program for the Daemonaseptium core, but what ever it was, it had to hurry up.

Theo got up out of the mahogany chair and stretched, stifling a yawn, he looked at the slowly advancing bar on the screen and sighed,

"Come on, hurry up!" he yelled at it, he didn't mean to yell, but he was so frustrated, the world was on the crux of falling into oblivion and he was powerless to stop it…unless he finished the bomb and killed the demonic army. An tremor shook the room, the chandelier jingled and the tables swayed slightly, a few papers and books fell off the tables, tremors had shook the city over the past six days, not very powerful but all were unnerving. No screams or gurgling yells could be heard from outside, the streets had been silent for the past three days, it was as if the infected were hiding, daring him to come out of his shelter so they could rip him apart; Theo had been having nightmares in which the infected had broken in and had ripped him limb from limb or the Mephiles would torture him senseless. Theo shuddered.

Over the past few days he had been sitting, reading the files that clustered the room, he had been surprised to know that they weren't just files on the Hellgate or the bomb, but also on the Legacy Gene itself; something was buried in the deepest layers of the virus's RNA, something demonic, this meant that the infected had a demonic virus in them, which could also mean that someone was controlling them. Theo walked over to a small camera in the corner of the room, attached to it was a small laptop, like the one he was using to program the bomb and a plain oak chair was sitting in front of the lens of the video camcorder, Theo sat down on it and clicked a few keys on the laptop, he was streaming this broadcast to every radio and TV station, so he could be broadcasted on all channels and frequencies, and using a temporal energy field generated by the storm, he was going to beam the message, four months into the past, hiding it in layers and layers of code for his past self to discover. He pressed ENTER and the camera began to capture him,

"My name is Captain Theodore Arcreus, I was born on the 15th July 3145." He gulped "I've come to cleanse this world, it's cannibalising itself, civilisation is committing suicide and all this was caused by the government and their longing for self-destruction. Humans and Mobians have used their lust and greed to build the planet into what it is today, they are foolish, sin and felonies do not make a world, they make a ticking time bomb. Many of you have said that I am a murder, a terrorist, a freak, I'm all these things but I've realised what I've done, and I'm prepared to put it right, if my plan works; then Spagonia and the rest of the world will be saved, not just from the infected, but also from demons that are attempting to cross now. I'm not a hero, I'm not a messiah, I'm just and ordinary guy who wants to save everything, evil will not win, utopia will rise again, but not the demons utopia, the utopia that sin as built and the one we all love and cherish." His eyes became down cast, but then he looked straight at the camera "And to those of you who know me…. I'm sorry for what I did, but I'll see you all soon." He smiled "I love you all… Goodbye". He tapped a few more keys and the camera stopped recording and instantly began to transmit to stations all over the planet and into the past.

"Well thank god that worked" Theo muttered grinning, "I pretty much poured my heart into that". He got up and walked back to the table on which the bomb stood, he looked at the screen, the bar had barely moved.

"Fuck" Theo muttered "Hurry up you lousy, son of a bit-

Suddenly there was an enormous explosion, the glass in the domed ceiling shattered and rained down upon him like a flurry of razors. He covered his head to protect himself, the glass sliced his arms, causing blood to trickle out of the gaping wounds and soak into his fur, but he would live. The ground shook tremendously, the Edwardian architecture of the university began to crumble and crack as the quake tore though the city like a rampaging bull. Theo looked up, out of the smashed roof and saw a continuous beam of white light, souring into the air and disappearing behind the black veil of clouds, lighting them up from behind, causing them to go a greyish white. Theo knew what was happening…. Game Over, end of the line, the end had finally come. A pain shot through his head as quick as lightening, he fell to his knees, yelling in pain, a dark whisper sounded in his head, inside every fibre of being , in ever particle of matter in his body, resonated that evil voice;

_Meet me at the cathedral, Theodore, it is time…_

Then it faded away, and the pain subsided, he got to his feet, he dashed over to the table and unplugged all the wires from the bomb, there was a shower of sparks as he disconnected the USB cable, there was a click and then the core began to glow, brighter than ever, and the humming got louder,

"Its ready" Theo muttered, he grinned "Its actually ready". He ran his finger over a small red button, if he pressed it, he would detonate the bomb, but he wanted to detonate it at the cathedral, he wanted to see the light go out of his eyes. A portal burst into bloom before him, still smiling, he attached the bomb to the back of his belt and he walked forward into the portal.

Shadow found himself back in New Metropolis, the downtown skyline stretching out before him; he turned to Cynder.

"How?"

"Mass teleportation" she said "Never managed to do it with this many people before but there's always a first time for everything, right?".

"Thanks" Shadow said "At least we can get these guys medical attention now"

Luna walked forward using her staff for support, she gazed around at the vast city,

"We made it," She muttered

"Yeah we did" Ghost said, smiling. A siren could be heard across the street as a GUN patrol vehicle rounded the corner and stopped straight ahead of them, a platoon of soldiers filed out, and Shadow limped towards them, the most senior looking of the group walked towards Shadow and saluted

"Agent Shadow"

"Sergeant Broody" Shadow responded, saluting "How did you find us so quickly?"

"We were on patrol and we picked up some unusual temperature fluctuations so were sped straight there and here we are".

"I presume New Metropolis has been quarantined?" Shadow asked

"Yeah, we've got reserve food and water surplices to last us about six months and NICOLE has activated the artificial weather system so that crops and trees don't wither and die."

"Ok then" He glanced back at the injured party " Can you get those guys to medical attention?"

Sergeant Broody nodded " Yes sir, what about yourself?" Shadow glanced at his deeply gouged arm, which was slowly dripping blood over his glove and staining the torn white fabric.

"I'll be fine, have you got a first aid kit?"

"Yeah, it'll be in the back of the van; I'm going to call in an ambulance" He pulled out a mobile phone and began to dial a number. Shadow walked briskly towards the back of the van and flung open the doors, he spotted the first aid kit and picked it up, sitting down on the floor of the van, he opened the plastic box and rummaged through it looking for bandages and disinfectant. A soldier ran up to him,

"Agent Shadow, I have a priority three call for you, sir"

"Right, thanks" the soldier ran back to assist the Sergeant, Shadow picked up the earpiece and placed it in his ear, "This is Shadow"

"_Oh thank god, you're alive," _Levinski said, his voice tinny and cracked through the earpiece.

"Yeah…just, we're all beaten up pretty badly though" Shadow said, finding the bottle of disinfectant and proceeding to pour some on an old rag, "What did you call me for anyway? And why Priority Three?"

"_Well, this is an emergency" _Shadow grunted and put the disinfected rag on his clawed arm, making him wince heavily "_It's about Chaos"_

"What about her?" Shadow asked, removing the rag and beginning to put bandages on the oozing gashes,

"_She's pregnant"_ Shadow sighed,

"Look if you just called me to say she got lucky with some dude then-

"_With Theo's child"_ Shadow froze, eyes wide

"What?" Shadow said, dumbstruck

"_We did a DNA scan and there is no doubt about it, its Theo's child"_

"Can't we do an abortion?"

"_We could; but that child is half-demon, demon spawn, more powerful than any mortal or demon, who knows what damage we could do to Chaos"._

Shadow simply sat there

"This changes everything"….

Theo stepped out of the portal and on to an ornately carved large stone roof, high above the city, wind whipping across it like a fast flowing river. High above him was a gigantic colour-shifting portal, over 10 metres across and 30 metres tall, shooting a continuous beam of white light into the blackened sky from one of its poles. The air tingles with raw power, which carved into Theo strengthening him, making him more powerful than he thought possible.

"It begins, Theo" a dark whisper called out of the darkness, Theo looked around for the source of the noise but found no discernable point.

"Show yourself, Mephiles!" Theo yelled back at the shadows, a figure emerged from the darkness, hands clasped behind his back, his green eyes glowing manically, his crystallised body shone from the white light that lit up the sky.

"So, destiny has led us here" Mephiles proclaimed, "The strings of life have now woven together into our destiny" he intertwined his fingers for added emphasise,

Theo stepped forward, electricity charging up in his hands,

"Why open the Hellgate?" Theo muttered, his red eyes locked on his green ones. Mephiles looked over his shoulder at the glowing optimum of reality and grinned madly,

"Sin and crime stains this world" Mephiles growled, he walked forward towards Theo until they were about two feet apart "Since the beginning, we Demons have watched and wept as the mobians and humans ripped apart their beloved world to tatters. We have been waiting for the right time and now there is no greater time, now with the civilisation contempt in fighting the plague that stalks the earth."

"You released the Legacy Gene" Theo said, anger welling inside him, electricity crackled faster and louder over his fist, he fired a bolt at Mephiles, it hit him square in the chest, he was blasted clean off his feet and was sent crashing down the rooftop; he landed inches from the edge, "You going to let millions die!" Theo yelled, Mephiles smirked,

"More like _billions_ Theo, please try and think in realistic numbers here" He looked at the portal with a look of pride "Corruption has gone on for too long here, Rafael will strip everything down and restart the world in a new demonic age, free of war and poverty".

"But I'm Rafael's vessel, he needs my body to do all those things" Theo said, "And I won't let him have it!". Mephiles chuckled,

"Rafael is no longer like a demon, he can't possess anyone, now he's more like a force, similar to life and death, with no consciousness but with a wrath that justifies his legend. And yes, you may be Rafael's true vessel but you're not his _only_ vessel."

Theo began to charge both of his fists, not limiting the power he forced into them, thick bolts of red lightening arced off his fists and hit the roof with cracks as they forced the air apart between them.

"What do you mean?" Theo yelled, Mephiles laughed

"You haven't worked it out yet? Anyone in our bloodline can be Rafael's vessel, and since we are the last of our bloodline, that are currently in this world"

"Currently in this world?" Theo questioned

"Use two may be born and breathing but there is one who is still in the womb"

"What?"

"That girl, Chaos, is pregnant with your child" Mephiles said

"LIER!" Theo yelled, shooting off the electricity bolts at Mephiles, but he was ready, Mephiles dodged to the side, the electricity bolts flew off into the storm.

"I'm finished with your god damn lies!" Theo shouted, pulling the bomb from the back of his belt, Mephiles saw it and his grin shortened,

"Oh, what's that then?" Mephiles asked

"This is a Demonaseptium bomb, powerful enough to destroy all of the demon army along with you and Rafael" Mephiles chuckled,

"What's so funny?" Theo asked, Mephiles stared at Theo with his eerie green eyes

"Tell me Theo, did you upload a program onto it?"

"Yes" Theo lied

"Liar" Mephiles muttered "It was a stabilisation program for the core and since you didn't fully install it, when you detonate the bomb you wont just destroy the army and me, you'll also kill yourself".

Theo breathed in deeply and ran Mephiles statement through his head,

"I know" Mephiles said, walking slowly towards Theo "You don't want to die, give the bomb to me and I will give you power beyond your wildest dreams; you'll be respected and adored by all. You will be like a god". A tear ran down Theos face, he brought his hand up and brushed the tear off his face, he knew Mephiles was right; he didn't want to die, he wanted to live in happiness and peace, but he was a demon and demons _never_ have peaceful lives. He knew what he must do. He closed his eyes, he was vaguely aware of Mephiles running towards him, he pressed the red button on the bomb. A bright blue shockwave ripped the surrounding area apart, Mephiles screamed as his body was ripped apart from the blast, the semi-completed Hellgate smashed with a roaring echo, the cathedral got blasted into smithereens as the shockwave hit it, pieces of charged debris rocketing up into the air, roads ripped up from the ground, building crumpled like children's toys. The shockwave spread across the planet in an instant, making the ground quake and the air rumble, the sky burned a brilliant, electric blue, all across the Mobius the infected crumpled as the charged air destroyed the Legacy Gene inside them, their injuries healed and they regained control of their minds. In New Metropolis, the glass dome above the great city shattered into billions of tiny pieces, which rained upon them like stardust, all across the city, every television and radio was transmitting Theos final words and suddenly everyone saw him for what he truly was, not a villain or a maniac but a boy who had the courage to fight destiny and accept his sins. He wasn't a messiah or a hero, he was Theo Arcrues and he would be remembered…

Theos body was found five days later in the ruins of Spagonia, it was transported back to New Metropolis and given a state funeral in Acorn Castle, a statue was built of him in central park, declaring him to be forgiven of his crimes and to be revered as a saint. The King and The President were present when him body was lowered into the deep abyss of his grave and then sealed underground with several feet of dirt and rock. Later that evening when his life was being revered and celebrated, Shadow stood by his grave and admired the great statue of him, he fiddled with a small medal in his hands he looked up into the stars dominating the sky.

"Without you" Shadow muttered "This world would be doomed" He breathed in deeply "I'm sorry about what I said to you; you were doing what you thought was right and I forgive you" He tossed the medal onto the dirt of his grave, on it's golden surface were emblazed the words:

_Captain Theo Arcreus- given for bravery in the face of adversity_

Shadow turned and walked away,

"Goodbye, old friend".

However, Theos blood now ran within the unborn one that now resided in Chaos womb, she was disgusted at what he did, he had destroyed the promise of a brave new world in which he would be a god. But he had thrown it all away, when the child was born, she would leave it outside Castle Acorn, she wants it to live a normal life.

But of course…Demons don't lead normal lives…

**A/N: Ok then we are done, please review with your entire overview of this story. Thanks to everyone for their support. Anyway, See ya **


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